Good morning. Here’s what happened overnight and what you need to know today.
1.
Chaos dividend: Wall Street’s biggest banks posted a jump in profits in the first quarter, as their traders reaped the rewards of sharp market swings triggered by geopolitical shocks before higher oil prices had time to hurt US borrowers. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo earned a combined USD27.53 billion ($38.62 billion), up 17% from a year earlier, on Wall Street Journal numbers. JPMorgan posted net income of USD16.5 billion in its second-best quarter ever, with trading revenue up 20%. The bank, however, lowered its full-year net interest income guidance, as CEO Jamie Dimon warned of “an increasingly complex set of risks — such as geopolitical tensions and wars, energy price volatility, trade uncertainty, large global fiscal deficits and elevated asset prices.” Citigroup’s net income rose 42% to USD5.8 billion in its highest quarterly revenue in a decade. Wells Fargo, meanwhile, earned USD5.3 billion, up 7% but less than analyst estimates, sending shares sharply lower. The three banks disclosed significant private credit exposure amid growing investor scrutiny. JPMorgan said it has about USD50 billion in exposure, Wells Fargo disclosed USD36.2 billion and Citigroup USD22 billion. Dimon told analysts losses would need to be “very large” before banks faced a significant hit. Elsewhere, BlackRock’s profits jumped 46% to USD2.2 billion despite a wave of private credit withdrawals. (WSJ)(FT)(Capital Brief)(Bloomberg)
2.
Damning poll: More than half of Australians want their government to distance itself from US President Donald Trump, as Australia warns it will not help reopen the Strait of Hormuz without a permanent ceasefire with Iran. An exclusive Capital Brief/DemosAU poll lays bare growing scepticism about the US–Australia alliance, on which Canberra has pinned its defence strategy, as well as a collapse in Australians’ support for Trump since his second inauguration last year. The new Capital Brief/DemosAU poll shows that 47% of Australians disagreed with the statement that the US was a “reliable military ally”, compared with 28% who agreed and 25% who did not know. When Trump was explicitly included in the questions, Australians were even more damning. Just 22% of respondents said their government should “closely support” Trump, down 14 percentage points since polling conducted in January last year. That compared with 59% who wanted it to distance itself from the president, up 14 percentage points over the same period. (Capital Brief)
