Bank of America Corp

JPMorgan Chase & Co. expects investment banking fees and markets revenue to rise in the mid-to-high teens percentage in the third quarter, according to co-President Doug Petno, a sharp contrast with Bank of America's expectation for a roughly 10% decline in investment banking fees. Petno said the bank entered the quarter with a strong pipeline and broad-based strength, particularly in M&A, as management and boards show greater confidence in pursuing transactions. The outlook builds on a strong second quarter, when JPMorgan's investment banking fees rose 30% year over year and markets revenue rose 35%, with equity trading up 86% and fixed-income trading up 6%. JPMorgan was also involved in major transactions including NextEra Energy's $67 billion merger with Dominion Energy and Alphabet's $85 billion equity offering, and Reuters reported it remained the global investment-banking revenue leader after its fees rose 28% in the first quarter. Bank of America expects third-quarter investment-banking revenue of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion, down from $2 billion a year earlier, and flat sales and trading revenue, while JPMorgan raised its 2026 expense forecast to $107.5 billion from $105 billion in July, partly because higher revenue generates higher compensation and other variable costs.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Solomon warned that the bank's fixed-income trading business is softer than in past quarters and that expenses are running higher across the firm. Speaking Wednesday at a Barclays Plc conference, Solomon said fixed income has been softer during the third quarter than equity trading, which has remained "very strong." He said costs are expected to be higher given how busy the bank has been with client activity in the period, and that Goldman has accelerated some technology investments as well. Goldman shares fell as much as 1.6% after Solomon's comments. The caution comes as Wall Street banks diverge on third-quarter expectations: on Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Co-President Doug Petno said trading revenue for the three months through September is poised to climb by a percentage in the mid-to-high teens, while on Monday Bank of America Corp.'s Brian Moynihan warned that trading revenue at his bank is likely to be "relatively flat" given a drop in fixed-income trading.

JPMorgan co-president Doug Petno forecast that the firm's investment banking and trading fees for the third quarter will rise in the mid to high teens compared with a year earlier, sending JPMorgan stock more than 1% higher on Tuesday. Petno, who runs JPMorgan's commercial and investment bank, said clients are seeing through market volatility and the fog of uncertainty, speaking at a Barclays financial services conference in New York. The outlook places JPMorgan at the bullish end for quarterly Wall Street fees, as rivals offered more cautious views after an unusually strong first half. Morgan Stanley co-president Daniel Simkowitz said at the same conference that the third quarter is no second quarter, while Wells Fargo CFO Mike Santomassimo said investment banking fees and markets revenue should each rise roughly mid-single digits year over year. Citigroup CFO Gonzalo Luchetti said dealmaking fees are on pace for mid-single-digit growth and trading fees for low-single-digit growth, and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said investment banking fees are on pace to reach $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion, down 10% to 20% from the $2 billion earned in last year's third quarter, with sales and trading flat. Petno also warned that the late-stage economy just feels too good, though he said large secular forces might make this cycle slightly different.

Lululemon's North America comparable sales fell 12% year over year in the second quarter of 2026 while net revenue in the region dropped 8%, prompting BMO Capital Markets to slap an underperform rating on the stock with a $70 price target. On a Sept. 9 earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Meghan Frank said a shift in customer demand from tighter athletic wear to looser fits drove a 20% decline in leggings sales, compounded by negative media and social commentary that hurt traffic and softer-than-planned responses to new product launches. BMO analyst Kelly Crago wrote that Lululemon's irrelevance with the consumer is showing up in the numbers, and said the company is losing market share across the Americas and China to smaller rivals Alo Yoga and Vuori; Lululemon's market share dipped 10 percentage points to 43.9% in August, while Alo Yoga and Vuori gained 5.9 percentage points and 2.2 percentage points respectively, according to a Reuters report citing M Science data. The BMO downgrade followed BofA Global Research's Sept. 4 cut of its price objective on Lululemon from $140 to $122, with analyst Lorraine Hutchinson maintaining a neutral rating while trimming her earnings-per-share forecast by 13% for fiscal year 2026 and 31% for fiscal year 2027. Lululemon is betting its turnaround on looser-fitting styles such as the Groove Wide-Leg and Align Foldover Jogger, new cold-weather outerwear, fewer SKUs, and increased marketing, while planning to raise markdowns by roughly 60 basis points in the third quarter; the company expects U.S. revenue to be down in the low double digits for the full year of 2026, and new CEO Heidi O'Neill, who took over on Sept. 8, will review the strategy.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said the bank's investment banking fees are on pace to reach $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion in the third quarter, down about 10% to 20% from the $2 billion it earned in the same quarter last year, sending the stock down roughly 5% at Monday's close. The broader investment banking market is on pace to be down roughly 10%, according to Dealogic data, and Moynihan said at a Barclays financial services conference that the bank is not as well-positioned in some of the businesses that have more activity, though the deal pipeline remains strong. Bank of America's sales and trading business is poised to be flat from a year ago, with financing and prime brokerage activity that boosted earlier results cooling over the summer as investors pulled back on risk, a downshift Moynihan acknowledged will make it harder for the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank to show revenue growing faster than expenses in the period. Shares of other Wall Street banks also tumbled on Monday, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley falling 4% and 3% while JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo were down between 1% and 2%. At the same conference, Citigroup CFO Gonzalo Luchetti said markets revenue is tracking toward mid-single-digit growth from a year ago, helped by equities, financing and foreign exchange, and that investment banking revenue should rise by the low single digits with potential upside depending on deals completed before quarter-end. Moynihan was more upbeat on the bank's Main Street operations, saying loans and deposits are growing and net interest income is tracking in line with expectations, and that he feels very good about the underlying US economy even if the Federal Reserve raises interest rates this week.

Bank of America Corporation announced it will redeem on September 15, 2026, all $500,000,000 of its Floating Rate Senior Notes and all $1,500,000,000 of its 5.933% Fixed/Floating Rate Senior Notes, both due September 2027, totaling $2 billion in redemptions. The redemption price for each series will be 100% of the principal amount plus accrued and unpaid interest up to the redemption date, after which interest will cease to accrue. Payment will be made through The Depository Trust Company, with The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A. serving as trustee and paying agent.

Bank of America, the U.S. consumer-and-investment banking giant, joined 20 other financial institutions racing to launch a dollar-backed stablecoin as its shares slid approximately 1.2% to $62.28 Friday. The heavyweight group plans to establish a company in 2026 and put the token into circulation during the first half of 2027. The pitch is simple but ambitious: one dollar of reserves behind every coin, support across public blockchains and a direct attack on institutional settlement, consumer payments and cross-border transfers. A euro-backed token is already next in line, while additional Group of Seven currencies could follow. The banks have trust, regulatory muscle and enormous distribution, but Tether has the harder advantage to steal: more than $180 billion already in circulation and a deeply established network. Bank of America can help build a credible challenger, but winning actual balances will be the real battle. The valuation picture adds pressure, with the $62.28 share price sitting 15.21% above its $54.06 GF Value, a premium that leaves less room for execution mistakes.

Bank of America's proprietary Bull & Bear Indicator has remained in sell-signal territory since May 2026, with July weekly readings ranging from 9.5 to 9.6 on a 10-point scale, the highest levels since 2021. The indicator, which blends institutional positioning, equity and bond flows, global stock-index breadth, and credit-market technicals, crosses above 8.0 to trigger a contrarian sell signal. Chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett said in a client note that "extreme bull positioning says reduce risk exposure," as fund-manager positioning hit the 99th percentile, equity flows the 93rd, hedge-fund exposure the 83rd, and credit technicals the 77th. A second threshold fired as managers cut cash reserves to 3.5% of assets under management in the August Global Fund Manager Survey, breaching the 4.0% Cash Rule. Historically, the indicator has fired 17 sell signals since 1998, with global stocks averaging declines of 2% to 3% in the two to three months following each signal, falling 60% of the time, with worst drawdowns of 15% to 20%. However, the current signal, triggered on May 26, has seen the S&P 500 gain 1.6% and the MSCI ACWI advance 1.3% since then. Morningstar's momentum data reinforces the crowding concern, with the S&P 500 Momentum Index delivering a 34% return between April and May, the strongest two-month gain since at least 1995. Philip Straehl, chief investment officer for Morningstar Wealth, told Business Insider that the surge reflects excessive optimism and leaves a cautious outlook. Investors in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) or Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) face concentration risk, as technology stocks now represent roughly one-third of the S&P 500's weight, and the 10 largest positions make up about 36% to 38% of both funds' assets. A breakdown in market breadth, with fewer stocks above their 200-day moving average, could convert vulnerability into losses, and the convergence of Bank of America's and Morningstar's signals narrows the chance of a false alarm.

Goldman Sachs warns that the largest U.S. banks are likely to moderate capital deployment as regulatory buffers rise for a third consecutive year and excess capital levels shrink. Analyst Richard Ramsden wrote in a note Wednesday that lenders will pull back given that excess capital has fallen, G-SIB scores have increased year-to-date after rising in both 2024 and 2025, and final details on regulatory capital reform are still pending. Five of the seven global systemically important banks—JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, BNY, and State Street—have moved up one or more G-SIB buckets this year, with none of the top five expected to mitigate scores enough to drop a bucket by year-end. Second-quarter G-SIB scores rose 23 basis points quarter over quarter, with the largest increases at JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo; JPMorgan is up two buckets year to date and now sits in the 7.0% bucket. The top seven banks hold an estimated $78 billion of excess capital, but Goldman says that falls to $55 billion in 2027 and $20 billion in 2028 as prior G-SIB increases take effect with a two-year lag, and could swing to a $21 billion deficit by 2029 when factoring in higher buffers. With bank price-to-tangible-book values at 2.1 times, Goldman sees buybacks as less attractive than balance sheet expansion, assuming a 15% increase in total capital return in 2026.

Greg Abel, Warren Buffett's successor as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has made significant changes to the company's $357 billion portfolio in his first year, including an eighth consecutive quarter of selling Bank of America shares and a major increase in its stake in Alphabet, which has become Berkshire's third-largest holding. In the second quarter, Berkshire sold 30,230,150 Bank of America shares, reducing its stake by a cumulative 53% over eight quarters, likely due to profit-taking as the stock now trades at a 62% premium to book value, compared to a 62% discount when Buffett first invested in 2011. Meanwhile, Abel more than tripled Berkshire's Alphabet stake in the first quarter and added another $17 billion in the second quarter, including $10 billion via private placement, surpassing Coca-Cola and Bank of America to become the third-largest holding. Alphabet's appeal lies in its dominant search market share of 89% to 93% and its AI-driven cloud growth, which saw 82% year-over-year sales growth in the June-ended quarter, potentially positioning it to eventually unseat Apple as Berkshire's top holding.