Wells Fargo, Citi, Goldman Crush Q2: 5 Banks, Zero Misses

Bank earnings season just delivered a clean sweep, and the numbers are genuinely hard to argue with. $GS posted record revenue up 39%, beating estimates by nearly $4 billion, with equities trading up 72% and equity underwriting up 130%. $C reported its best quarterly revenue in a decade, EPS up 61%, with equity markets revenue surging 45%. $WFC beat on every line, corporate and investment banking up 16% year-over-year. $JPM hit a 23% return on tangible common equity against a 17% long-term target. $BAC rounded out the sweep. Five banks, zero misses, no asterisks.

The theme connecting all of it: equity trading activity that Bloomberg Intelligence calls partly idiosyncratic, citing SpaceX-related volume as one driver of the outsized quarter. That is a polite way of saying some of this may not repeat. Credit quality is still holding, with Wells Fargo net charge-offs down roughly 10 basis points, but executives across the board are using words like cautious and uncertain in the same breath as record results.

Meanwhile, retail sentiment on YouTube and X is already rotating forward, with Netflix and Meta as the next targets. If the banks set the bar this high, the pressure on Big Tech to deliver something equally cinematic just got very real.