Goldman Sachs on Tuesday reported strong third-quarter earnings, but a look at the bigger picture provides a bit of a reality check.
While the firm beat analyst expectations across the board, and revenues were up from the year-ago quarter in equities and fixed income trading, the year-to-date comparison is less rosy.
In the first nine months of 2016, total trading revenues of $10.87 billion are down 11% from trading revenues of $12.27 billion in the first nine months of 2015.
In investment banking, total revenues of $4.79 billion are down 13% from $5.48 billion in 2015.
Investing and lending revenues in the first nine months of the year were down 37% from a year ago, while investment management revenues were down 10%.
Basically, with the exception of debt underwriting revenue and securities services revenue, everything is down.
So while things have certainly picked up for Goldman Sachs from a particularly weak first quarter, the year-to-date picture shows just how hard it can be to make up for lost time.