US President Donald Trump meets President Naive Buquere (not pictured) of El Salvador, President Naive Buquere, in an oval office in the White House in Washington, DC, on April 14, 2025.
Kevin Lamarck | Reuters
Wall Street banks have listed the biggest hauls ever from stock trading as the opening months of President Donald Trump’s tenure led to a dramatic upheaval of asset classes, bringing institutional investors around the world to position themselves for a new administration.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America each recorded record stock trading revenues in the first quarter, with the first three earnings of around $4 billion.
When including Citigroup and Wells Fargo, the six largest US banks have increased 33% from a year ago, including the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the 2008 global financial crisis, 33% higher than the previous turmoil period.
The performance that helped all banks beat expectations for the quarter were deemed “epic,” “extraordinary” and “great” by analysts on a conference call last week.
It’s a twist on Wall Street’s expected Trump boom.
Trump’s second appointment was considered good for those treated by Wall Street, investment bankers with a billion-dollar acquisitions and a well-known IPO list. Instead, trading activities remained slimy, with the biggest beneficiary ever sitting on the bank’s trade bed.
Equity traders made the biggest profit in the first quarter, but bond officials also increased revenues against rising activity in the currency, commodities and bond markets, according to revenue releases.
“There’s no reason to believe that as long as the volatility continues, there’s no reason to believe it will stop anytime.
Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said that investment banks remained calm, but are unsettling as corporate leaders are doing “doing a lot” to make strategic decisions amid ongoing uncertainty.
Large banks will help, Shanahan said, as large corporations have secured potential billions of dollars for sour loans as the economy weakens further. JP Morgan executives said Friday that the model assumes U.S. unemployment rates will rise to 5.8% later this year. According to data from the Ministry of Labor, the unemployment rate was 4.2% in March.
The environment will leave regional banks that lack large trade operations in “hard places,” amidst stagnant loan growth and default promotions for borrowers, Shanahan added.
“An important movement”
The first quarter is usually busy as hedge funds, pensions and other active manager investors begin a new performance cycle.
That was especially true this year. Hours after the January oath ceremony, Trump said he would soon implement tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. The following month he began escalating trade tensions with China, simultaneously targeting certain industries and products such as automobiles and steel.
The dynamic, which Trump introduced and then expanded the tariffs on sweep that had a profound impact on American businesses, reached a hot pitch around his so-called “liberation day” announcement in early April. That’s when the market began his historic move as both stocks and government bonds were lashed out amidst the chaos.
The increased levels of activity mean that the second quarter will be even more profitable for the Wall Street giant than the first quarter.
Goldman CEO David Solomon told analysts Monday that “we clearly saw a big move in the stock market as people are positioned in different kinds of trade policies in March due to different kinds of trade policies,” and “in many different ways it led to higher activity for us.”
In the second quarter so far, “the business is working very well and our clients are very active,” Solomon said.
Wall Street has evolved since the 2008 financial crisis, when Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns were wiped out and then merged trade and investment banks among fewer large corporations.
Morgan Stanley’s Choice – led by people who overhauled the company’s bond business and are recognized to take over its stock franchise to new heights before becoming CEO last year – Wall Street’s dominant trading desk offers professional investors around the world faster execution and a bigger credit line.
Rather than betting home money on bets, they are more leaning towards promoting transactions and providing leverage to their clients. In other words, they are profiting from activity even when the market rises or falls.
“We’ve been working with our clients non-stop,” Pick said Friday. “For all concerns about what could be on the real economic path, our ability to trade with clients when leverage levels are up and down is very orderly.”
