The market took a shine to JPMorgan Chase's earnings because it crushed expectations -- logging earnings per share of $1.21 versus the $0.72 analysts expected.
But digging deeper, the quarter was more a feat of managing expectations than managing the business. The "London Whale" trading fiasco added another $4.4 billion of losses. JPMorgan was able to counteract those losses in the quarter with various actions like selling winners, but that's window dressing. It's also restating its first-quarter earnings downward because of larger than previously reported trading losses.
Despite the market reaction, JPMorgan's earnings were less impressive than Wells Fargo's. And its lukewarm Wall Street banking results could be bad news for Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which report next week. Of course, someone had to be on the other side of those trades.
Anand gives his thoughts on the takeaways from this earnings report in the following video.
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