The Big Bank Earnings Season Begins Friday

On October 14, three big banks, JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, Wells Fargo & Co WFC and Citigroup Inc C will kick-start the earnings season for the financial sector. Interestingly, all three companies have delivered either positive EPS surprises or in-line expectations in the last two quarters of the current year.

There are at least two factors investors will be looking for from these companies. The first one is their outlook for the year ahead, and the second is the prospect of a rate hike, which is expected in December by most economists.

Argus pointed out that the financial sector suffered over 4 percent in the current year compared to the overall market. One of the primary reasons is the rate hike schedule, which was disappointing. The Brexit vote also played its part in hurting the financial segment, injecting ambiguity into world banking performances.

Related Link: Buy These 3 Financials As An Alternative To The Big Banks

Therefore, the opinions from financial sector experts will be keenly watched over the next week. However, investors' sentiments remained negative ahead of the results, with the stocks trading down.

The following companies will report their third quarter results on October 14:

• Citigroup: The Street sees EPS of $1.16 and revenue of $17.34 billion.
• JPMorgan: Analysts expect $1.39 EPS on revenue of $23.99 billion.
• Wells Fargo: The Street is looking for an EPS of $1.01 on $22.22 billion in revenue.

The following banks are scheduled to release their results next week:

• Bank of America Corp BAC: The Street sees the company to deliver $0.33 EPS and revenue of $20.94 billion when the company announces its results on October 17.
• Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS: The company will reveal its results on October 18. Analysts expect EPS of $3.79 and $7.42 billion revenue.
• Morgan Stanley MS: The Street expects the company to generate $8.16 billion revenue to earn $0.63 EPS as the company would disclose its results on October 19.

At Last Check:

• Bank of America was down 1.03 percent at $15.86.
• Citigroup was down 0.29 percent at $48.57.
• Goldman Sachs was down 1.23 percent at $167.41.
• JPMorgan was down 0.53 percent at $67.76.
• Morgan Stanley was down 0.5 percent at $31.75.
• Wells Fargo was down 1.49 percent at $44.65.

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