JPMorgan Earnings Rise

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) shrugged off the summer's credit crunch to post better-than-expected third-quarter earnings.

The New York-based bank made $3.4 billion, or 97 cents a share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from the year-ago $3.3 billion, or 92 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were looking for a 90-cent profit.

JPMorgan said it took markdowns in the latest quarter of $1.3 billion on leveraged lending funded and unfunded commitments and weaker trading performance.

Retail financial services revenue rose 18% from a year ago, though net income in the segment dropped 14% as the bank took a $306 million increase in home equity loan reserves.

"Our firm performed well overall in the third quarter, despite challenging credit and market conditions," said CEO Jamie Dimon. "Asset Management and Treasury & Securities Services delivered record earnings, Card Services and Commercial Banking produced double-digit earnings growth, and Private Equity posted another quarter of strong gains. Investment banking is a volatile business, and while we would typically expect lower earnings in the Investment Bank during a difficult market environment, such as this one, we still believe that our performance could have been a bit better. Finally, Retail Financial Services had good revenue growth while further strengthening its reserves for home equity loan losses."

The news comes amid a rash of banking-sector write-offs, led by multibillion hits at Citi (C), Merrill Lynch (MER) and UBS (UBS).

JPMorgan rose $1.67 to $46.78 in premarket trading.

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