Wall Street banks lost bond trading revenue to rate swings, while equities delivered
Third-quarter bond trading weakened at major Wall Street banks amid rate volatility, while their equity trading desks posted sharp revenue gains, according to Newsmetry API.
- published
- in the api
- on the website
on the website stories appear 15 minutes after publication, in the api at once. connect the api →
what happened
According to Newsmetry API, a steep bond market selloff showed up in the third-quarter earnings of Wall Street banks. Treasury yields hit multi-decade highs, and some days brought abrupt moves as investors reset their expectations for interest rates.
Fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) revenue fell 7% year on year at Morgan Stanley, 4% at JPMorgan and 17% at Bank of America. Goldman Sachs was flat, while Citi was the only bank to grow, by 4%. Morgan Stanley CFO Sharon Yeshaya said rates 'rose pretty furiously' during the quarter. Bank of America reported unrealized losses on its bond portfolio of $109 billion, up from $85 billion at the end of June, though most of those securities are held to maturity.
Equities looked far stronger. Equity trading revenue rose 72% at Goldman Sachs, 41% at Morgan Stanley and 49% at JPMorgan, while Bank of America and Citi posted the smallest gains, at 11% and 14%.
why it matters
Oppenheimer analyst Chris Kotowski warns that reliance on equity revenue carries risk because those earnings may be volatile. He wrote to clients that the group fears an 'easy come, easy go' risk in these revenues. For markets, bank earnings now depend heavily on trading volatility, which can reverse quickly.
tags
instruments
sources
- Bond trading weakens for US banks as interest rate volatility affects investors — Newsmetry API, 14 October 2026 at 18:53 UTC
prepared by the newsmetry newsroom with ai assistance from the sources listed below. not investment advice.
on the website stories appear 15 minutes after publication, in the api at once.
get stories in real time ↗