Investing.com – JP Morgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, gave an upbeat start to the second quarter earnings season on Friday after reporting results that beat on the top and bottom line, sending its shares higher in pre-market trade.
JP Morgan said earnings per share came in at $1.82 in the second quarter, up from $1.55 a share a year earlier and surging past expectations of $1.58 a share.
The bank’s revenue totaled $25.5 billion in the April-to-June quarter, an increase from the $25.21 billion reported in the same period in 2016 and higher than estimates for revenue of $24.96 billion.
"We continued to post very solid results against a stable-to improving global economic backdrop," JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said.
"The U.S. consumer remains healthy, evidenced in our strong underlying performance in Consumer & Community Banking," he added.
Traders will now turn their attention to the bank’s conference call due to start at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT).
Following the release of the report, shares in JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) initially rose more than 1%, but were last up just 0.32% in pre-market trade at $93.40 by 7:08AM ET (11:08GMT). The bank closed on Thursday with gains of 0.64% at $93.10.
Meanwhile, U.S. equity markets pointed to a flat open. The blue-chip Dow futures was unchanged, the S&P 500 futures edged down 1 point, or 0.04%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was also unchanged.