Financial-sector exchange traded funds (ETFs) were flat in afternoon trading Tuesday following quarterly results from Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS).
The Wall Street firm said first-quarter profit and revenue fell from the year-ago period, but the results beat consensus estimates. However, Goldman shares fell after the stock was downgraded to neutral from buy by Richard Bove at Rochdale Securities, TheStreet.com reported.
“Generally improving market and economic conditions, coupled with our strong client franchise, produced solid results,” said Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, in the earnings release. “Looking ahead, we continue to see encouraging indications for economic activity globally.”
The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEArca: XLF) was little changed for the session at last check.
Goldman follows J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM), Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C) in releasing quarterly earnings.
Investors are focused on Goldman’s key trading business as well as credit conditions. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast profit would fall to 82 cents a share from $5.59 in the year-ago quarter.
The sharply lower estimate was driven by expectations of weak trading results and a charge booked by Goldman for buying back $5 billion of preferred stock from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A), Reuters reported.
Goldman’s reputation took another hit last week when a Senate subcommittee blasted the firm’s actions during the financial crisis.
Financial ETFs fell Monday after Citigroup’s quarterly results and Standard & Poor’s cut its credit outlook on the U.S.
Financial-sector ETFs have lagged the market lately on worries over the economy with some analysts scaling back their GDP growth forecasts.
“While there were some sighs following the near shutdown of the federal government, the larger story was the growing concern over an economic soft patch following renewed consumer concerns as well as several streams of data over the last several weeks that have caused more than a few to recast their recent and near term expectations for the domestic economy,” Think 20/20 said in a research note Monday.
Other banks reporting quarterly earnings Tuesday include State Street (NYSE: STT), Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK) and U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB).
