“The revenue beat came mostly on the trading side, which was nearly $1 billion better than expected,” Chris Kotowski, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., said in a note.
However, market observers warn that fixed-income trading activity could slow down during the final months of the year in line with normal seasonal trends. John Gerspach, Citigroup’s chief financial officer, said that the past two years have seen roughly 20% drops in markets revenue.
“December usually is a pretty light month,” Gerspach said. “There’s certainly nothing to indicate right now that that’s going change.”
IAI provides exposure to U.S. investment banks, discount brokerages and stock exchanges. Top holdings include Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW), CME Grouop Inc Class A (NYSE: CME) and Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE). Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are slated to report third quarter earnings on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
For more information on the financial sector, visit our financial category.
iShares US Broker-Dealers & Securities Exchanges ETF