Wall Street’s trading machine is slowing down. Big bank executives this week warned that their third-quarter revenues would be down from the spring, when manic interest in AI stocks led to trading-floor windfalls. Bank of America’s trading revenue will be “relatively flat” from a year ago, CEO Brian Moynihan said. “I think it’s safe to say, 3Q is no 2Q,” Morgan Stanley’s co-president Dan Simkowitz added, while JPMorgan’s Doug Petno previewed a “sequential decline” from the second quarter. David Solomon said Goldman Sachs’ stock-trading was holding up but that its bond desk was “a little bit softer.”
Trading revenue at the five biggest banks has doubled since the end of 2023, serving as a profit engine as higher interest rates bite into lending. A slowdown would imperil what are expected to be hefty year-end bonuses for traders.
