JPMorgan Chase & Co easily beat Wall Street's third-quarter profit expectations, with loan growth and higher interest rates more than offsetting weakness in its markets-related unit.
Executives at the largest US bank touted the diverse mix of businesses that allow JPMorgan to weather a dip in one area or another.
They downplayed a 27% drop in bond trading revenue even though weakness has continued into the fourth quarter.
Overall, JPMorgan's profit rose 7.1% in the third quarter compared to the same time last year, to $6.73 billion, or $1.76 per share.
Analysts had expected earnings of $1.65 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.
The bank's total revenue of $25.33 billion also topped the average analyst estimate of $25.23 billion.
The bank said that growth in credit cards, car loans, commercial banking and corporate advisory fees drove the results, with average core loans up 7% during the quarter.
JPMorgan's net interest income, or the difference between what it pays for funds and collects from lending them out, rose 10%.
However, markets revenue fell 21% as the slump in bond trading outweighed a more modest dip in equities, slightly worse than the roughly 20% drop CEO Jamie Dimon had forecast at an event in September.
Wall Street banks have been grappling with bond market challenges for most of the past seven years, as client volumes have been depressed for a number of reasons and new regulations have restricted certain activities and made trading more expensive.
JPMorgan fared worse last quarter than rival Citigroup, which reported a 16% decline in bond trading today.
The trends bode poorly for Goldman Sachs Group, which has struggled more in bond trading recently than other Wall Street banks.
JPMorgan's markets revenue is likely to drop again in the fourth quarter because the year-ago period was strong, the bank's chief financial officer Marianne Lake said on a conference call with analysts.
Trading revenue during the fourth quarter of 2016 benefited from a surge in trading activity following the US election.
Still, management maintained earlier guidance for full-year net interest income, expenses, charge-offs and loan growth, indicating that they expect JPMorgan's other businesses to continue to offset capital markets pain.
