Will This Trend Weigh on Bank Profits Again This Quarter?

Banks with Wall Street operations turned in pretty good second-quarter results, but there was one area that lagged behind: trading revenues.

All five of the nation's biggest banks with large trading operations saw their bread-and-butter bond trading units lag the year-ago period. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) led the way with a 40% drop, followed by JPMorgan Chase's (NYSE: JPM) 19% decline in fixed-income trading.

As you can see in the table below, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup (NYSE: C), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) were in the same boat, though to less of a degree. And now, according to recent statements from Goldman Sachs' chief financial officer, Marty Chavez, there's reason to believe that this trend is continuing in the third quarter.

Source: Fool.com