JPMorgan profit falls 19% in first-quarter

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Friday that its first-quarter profit fell 19 percent on lower revenue from fixed-income trading and mortgages, missing markets expectation. The biggest U.S. bank reported that its net income for the first quarter of 2014 was 5.3 billion U.S. dollars, compared with 6.5 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2013. Earnings per share were 1.28 dollars, compared with 1.59 dollars in the first quarter of 2013. Revenue for the quarter was 23.9 billion dollars, down 8 percent compared with the prior year. The firm's return on tangible common equity for the first quarter of 2014 was 13 percent, compared with 17 percent in the prior year. The Board of Directors intends to increase the second-quarter common stock dividend to 0.40 dollar per share from the current 0.38 dollar per share. And the board has also authorized the firm to repurchase 6.5 billion dollars of common equity commencing within the second quarter of this year through the end of the first quarter of 2015. Its consumer & community banking deposit growth and card sales volume both remain above the industry average, and have made significant progress in Business Banking originations -- up 22 percent. Its corporate & investment bank was No. 1 in global IB fees, with top positions in global debt and equity, global syndicated loans and global long-term debt. Gross investment banking revenue with commercial banking clients was up 31 percent. Asset management had its twentieth consecutive quarter of positive net long-term client flows and had record loan balances, up 20 percent. JPMorgan Chase had a good start for the year, given there were industry-wide headwinds in markets and mortgage, said Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO. "We have growing confidence in the economy; consumers, corporations and middle market companies are in increasingly good financial shape and housing has turned the corner in most markets. JPMorgan Chase provided credit and raised capital of over 450 billion dollars for our clients during the first quarter of 2014, which included 5 billion dollars for U.S. small businesses," Dimon added