JPMorgan touts ‘soft landing’ possibility after better-than-feared earnings

Investors pushed the stocks of JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) higher Friday after third quarter results looked better than feared, a demonstration of resilience from the banking giants that points to the possibility of a soft landing for the US economy.

One JPMorgan executive was even willing to connect the bank’s performance to that soft landing, citing strength on the part of the lender’s consumer and corporate customers. An economy that achieves a soft landing is one where inflation slows without causing a recession.

“Broadly, I would say these earnings are consistent with the soft-landing narrative,” the bank’s CFO Jeremy Barnum told reporters. And the fact that companies are optimistic, he added, is “pretty consistent with this kind of Goldilocks economic situation.”

Profits at JPMorgan and Wells Fargo both fell from the year-ago period by 2% and 11%, respectively, but those declines were less than what Wall Street expected.

 

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