Goldman Sachs Tops Estimates

Total principal investments dropped 26% to $1.03 billion.

Goldman's so-called VaR, or value at risk, totaled $151 million in the fourth quarter. The VaR calculates how much money a firm could lose in one day of trading if all bets were against it. In other words, it's a measurement of how much money a firm is willing to gamble on its proprietary traders.

Last week Lehman Brothers(LEH) reported profit fell 12% to $886 million, or $1.54 a share. Still, Lehman managed to beat analysts' estimates by 12 cents.

While Lehman's capital markets business dropped 10% to $2.7 billion in the quarter, and fixed-income revenue plunged 60% to $860 million, the company was largely able to offset its $3.5 billion in writedowns.

Lehman through a $2 billion gain on hedge which, coupled with $600 million in gains of sale of leverage loans and other securities, took a net writedown of $830 million.

Two other Wall Street banks -- Morgan Stanley(MS) and Bear Stearns(BSC) -- are expected to report earnings Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

Shares of Goldman were up 39 cents to $209.02 in early trading Tuesday.

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