US bank JPMorgan Chase said today that second-quarter profit fell, hurt by $1.1 billion in write-downs at its investment banking unit, but the results beat expectations.
Net income dropped to $2 billion, or 54 cents per share, from $4.23 billion, or $1.20 a share, a year earlier. Analysts had on average expected 44 cents a share.
The company's shares rose nearly 6 per cent to $38 in trading before the market opened.
But JPMorgan also sounded a note of caution. "Our expectation is for the economic environment to continue to be weak - and to likely get weaker - and for the capital markets to remain under stress," chief executive Jamie Dimon said in a statement.
The New York-based company, which bought Bear Stearns in May, has survived the credit crunch better than its peers and so far avoided some of the massive write-downs posted by other banks this year.
JPMorgan shares closed at $35.94 on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. The stock had fallen 15 per cent this year, compared with a 35 per cent decline in the KBW Bank Index.
Reuters