Goldman Sachs revenues down 12 per cent
Goldman Sachs shares fell 1.8 per cent in pre-market trading after it posted figures showing revenues had fallen 12 per cent to $7.96bn (£5.23bn) in the three months to the end of December, as revenues in its fixed income business dropped 29 per cent to $1.2bn.
The investment bank said profits fell to $2.17bn or $4.38 a share in its third quarter, although that was above analysts' expectations of $4.36 per share. Investment banking revenue fell 16 per cent to $1.44bn.
Goldman is the fourth major US investment bank to post a less-than-impressive performance, after JP Morgan, City and Bank of America Merill Lynch all reported their results earlier this week.
Although the banks complained that the first part of last year was, essentially, quite boring, they were caught out by more volatile markets in the final part of the year, with weak growth in the eurozone and China, as well as problems in the Russian market, causing equities in particular to swing wildly, while the falling price of oil affected global markets.
Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's chief executive, said the bank was "pleased with our performance during a year characterised by mixed global economic and financial conditions".
The depth of our global client franchise and our continued discipline on expenses and capital management produced a solid return for our shareholders. Looking ahead, we see evidence of a continued pick up in momentum for the global economy that will improve the opportunity set for 2015.