Quarterly results from the world’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), disappointed investors who were hoping for the usual ‘beat’. The bank missed forecasts for revenue, fixed-income trading, investment banking and earnings per share.
Q3 results disappoint
For the three months to September, the bank reported revenue of $50.2 billion against a consensus of $52.2 billion. Part of the shortfall came from fixed-income, currency and commodity (FICC) trading, where revenue was $5.37 billion against a forecast of $6 billion.
Another area which fell short was investment banking, where revenue of $3.1 billion missed the consensus of $3.27 billion. In contrast, equity trading surpassed expectations with revenue of $4.95 billion against a forecast of $4.5 billion.
Credit costs continued to rise, reaching $2.7 billion with $2.2 billion of net charge-offs and a $539 increase in net reserves. That compared with $2.5 billion of costs in Q2 with $2.4 billion of net charge-offs and a $149 million net reserve build.
The net result of the various misses and higher provisions was an increase in ‘normalised’ EPS to $5. 57 against $5.07 in Q3 2025. However, this was below the forecast of $5.94 per share and Q2 earnings of $7.70 per share.
JPMorgan Chase Q3 2026 results vs expectations
| Q3 Estimate | Q3 Actual | Difference | |
| Revenue ($bn) | 52.2 | 50.2 | -2.0 |
| FICC trading ($bn) | 6 | 5.37 | -0.63 |
| Inv Banking ($bn) | 3.27 | 3.1 | -0.17 |
| Equity trading ($bn) | 4.5 | 4.95 | +0.45 |
| EPS ($) | 5.94 | 5.75 | -0.19 |
Source: Company accounts
This officially qualifies as a negative surprise from a company which very rarely disappoints the market. Although the results were strong, for the most part, they didn’t live up to expectations.
In his commentary, CEO Jamie Dimon made his usual reference to strong business investment and robust consumer spending. However, he also flagged large deficits, sticky inflation and rising interest rates as headwinds.
Interestingly, alongside increased provisions for bad loans the bank reduced its share buyback activity in Q3. This suggests management are preparing for a tougher evironment ahead, and potentially a weaker share price.
The initial pre-market indication was for a 4% fall in the stock, which would wipe out its meagre gains so far this year. However, thanks to net interest income guidance which is fractionally better, the shares look set to open flat to slightly higher.
