Two of the largest American banks, Citigroup and Bank of America, obtained better expected profits in the first three months of this year that merchants raised higher income amid the threat of President Donald Trump to start a global commercial war.
The banks reaped the benefits of investors that adjusted their portfolios after being scared as a possible return to protectionist commercial policies, after a trend similar to giant companions of the JPMorgan wall and Goldman Sachs.
President Trump had presented a series of ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on April 2, called Liberation Day, to be slapped in imported goods, only to make a last change of U last Wednesday as the loan costs of the United States government increased.
Citi said that its Q1 gain increased by 21% to $ 4.1 billion, or $ 1.96 per share, in higher revenues and lower costs of the same time last year, while Boa increased from 11% to $ 7.4 billion from 2024.
The analysts surveyed by the London Stock Exchange Group foreshadowed the $ 1.85 per Citi action, while Bofa’s profits predicted to ascend to 82 cents per share.
Citi equations operators benefited from “greater market volatility” and an increase in customer transactions, which drives revenues to $ 1.5 billion in the last three months and 23% more year -on -year.
Bank’s fixed income operators generated $ 4.5 billion in income, mainly in government currencies and bonds, an increase of 8% at the same time in 2024.
Bofa also saw that the income from Variable Income negotiation shot, increasing 17% to $ 2.2 billion, while fixed income revenues increased 5% to $ 3.5 billion.
“The commercial results were the show star,” said Stephen Biggar, a bank analyst at Argus Research, who warned executives that they can see more a fall in the deal this year.
In the first three months of 2025, the M&A activity of the United States fell by 13%, according to Dealogic’s data, and Biggar said that another collapse “could condemn a recovery of 2025 if the tariff agitation is not resolved soon.”
Citigroup registered $ 1.1 billion in investment banking fees for the first three months of the year, 14% more compared to the previous year, while Bofa said that investment banking rates were $ 1.5 billion, 3% less than the first three months or 2024.
Bofa’s CEO, Brian Moynihan, said the “bank customers of the bank have been working well and that consumers have shown resilience.”
But in a reference little auctioned to the ongoing threat of a world trade war, the 65 -year -old man warned that Americans “potentially face a changing economy in the future.”
Fraser gave a more optimistic note about Trump’s attempts to restructure United States commercial ties with countries.
“When everything is said and done, and long -standing commercial imbalances and other structural changes are behind us, the United States will continue to be the world’s leading economy, and the dollar in the reserve currency,” he said after the results of CITI were published.
Last Friday, the JPMorgan CEO, Jamie Dimon, told investors that the United States’s economy would face “considerable turbulence” if Trump went ahead with his plan to slapped tariffs on imported products.
