JPMorgan’s trading losses mount to $4.4 bn; Q2 profit drops 9%

US financial services giant JPMorgan Chase & Co reported yesterday a 9-per cent drop in its Q2 net income at $5 billion driven by hefty trading losses amounting $4.4 billion at its Chief Investment Office (CIO) in London.

Earnings per share (EPS) in the second quarter were $1.21, compared with $1.27 a year ago. The EPS was well above the analysts' predictions of around $0.72 for the quarter.

The revenue for Q2 slumped 17 per cent to $22.2 billion compared with $26.8 billion for the same period last year.

For the first half of the year, revenue was down 7 per cent to 48.2 billion, while net income dropped 10 per cent to 9.9 billion compared with the prior year.

JPMorgan's chairman and chief executive officer Jamie Dimon said, ''Importantly, all of our client-driven businesses had solid performance. However, there were several significant items that affected the quarter's results – some positively; some negatively.''

''These included $4.4 billion of losses on CIO's synthetic credit portfolio, $1 billion of securities gains in CIO and a $545 million gain on a Bear Stearns-related first-loss note, for which the firm now expects full recovery,'' Dimon further stated.