Much of the attention on Goldman Sachs’s earnings on Tuesday focused on the Wall Street firm’s reorganization, which de-emphasizes traditionally profitable, if volatile, businesses like M.&A. advice and elevates steadier operations like asset and wealth management. (It also splits up Goldman’s struggling consumer-lending unit.) But yesterday’s results also highlight a split in big banks’ fortunes. Goldman and Morgan Stanley, which rely more on traditional Wall Street businesses, suffered from a slowdown in high-finance activities like deals and I.P.O.s that led to drops in revenue. By comparison, lenders like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo that rely on Main Street for more of their business reported sales gains.
Not surprisingly, the latter group has outperformed the former as investors have broadly acquired bank stocks. Over the past five days, financials is the leading S&P 500 sector, up 6.4 percent, according to Fidelity. The exception to the Main Street theme, of course, was Goldman, which has struggled for over a year to get its Marcus division to hit the lofty expectations set by its C.E.O., David Solomon.
