Investment bank Goldman Sachs said today second-quarter earnings more than doubled from a year earlier on near-record investment banking and trading revenue.
Wall Street's top banking, trading and money-management firm reported net income of $2.31 billion up from $865 million a year earlier.
Goldman's earnings also include a one-time pretax gain of $700 million from the sale of a New Jersey power plant.
Net revenue more than doubled to $10.1 billion from $4.81 billion a year earlier, beating the average forecast of $8.88 billion.
Goldman said investment banking revenue of $1.53 billion marked its best quarter in six years and its second-best ever. Bond, currency and commodities trading revenue, meanwhile, rose 15 per cent to a record $4.32 billion.
Even equities trading revenue, which some analysts had cautioned could be hurt by a stock market downturn last month, posted its second-best quarter at $2.35 billion.
Goldman shares have risen 46 per cent in the past year - even after paring gains in recent weeks - outpacing the 37 percent advance of the AMEX Broker-Dealer Index. With investors cheering its growth and profitability, Goldman shares fetch 2.4 times book value, the priciest among Wall Street's big firms.