Bank Earnings Show U.S. Economy Is Holding Up

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, News

4.1 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

P.M. Edition for April. 14. Earnings reports out today from JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo show that customers continued to spend, borrow and invest, despite the war in Iran and AI jitters. WSJ investing columnist Spencer Jakab joins to discuss how this might be a great quarter beyond the banking sector. Plus, U.S. stocks extend their winning streaks; we hear from Journal markets reporter Hannah Erin Lang about what’s driving the rally. And Amazon has agreed to acquire satellite operator Globalstar for about $11 billion. Patience Haggin, who covers telecoms for the Journal, says the deal could help Amazon compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink internet network. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Earnings from America's biggest banks show the U.S. economy is still going strong.
0:08.6	Plus, U.S. stocks continue their gains with the NASDAQ hitting its longest winning streak in years.
0:14.3	And why Amazon is buying a rival to Elon Musk's satellite network Starlink.
0:19.2	Starlink is way ahead of Amazon in the satellite connectivity business.
0:23.6	When Amazon gets control of Global Star, they'll get a pretty big boost on the way up towards
0:28.7	competing with Starlink.
0:30.1	It's Tuesday, April 14th.
0:32.1	I'm Alex O'Solov for the Wall Street Journal.
0:34.7	This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business
0:38.6	stories that move the world today.
0:46.3	The biggest U.S. banks are reporting earnings this week, and they've got good news. American
0:51.4	households and businesses are holding up. Today, J.P. Morgan Chase,
0:55.6	Citigroup, and Wells Fargo said customers continued to spend, borrow, and invest in the first
1:00.5	quarter, even as war broke out in the Middle East and investors worried about risks from
1:05.1	inflation, AI, and turmoil in private credit funds. The three banks earned a collective $27.5 billion in the first
1:12.6	quarter, up 17 percent from a year earlier. In his most recent newsletter, WSJ
1:17.9	investing columnist Spencer Jacob says there's reason to think that these good results won't
1:22.3	just be limited to the banking sector, even though consumers are showing some signs of strain.
1:29.1	Spencer, where might we be seeing these strong earnings? It was generally a good quarter for Wall Street banks, for sure,
1:33.9	but overall, it's likely to be a very good earnings season. Probably the best quarter for growth
1:39.5	since 2021, which, to put that in perspective, that's when we were still rebounding from the pandemic
1:45.6	contraction in the economy. While a blowout quarter, a very good quarter for a company,
	...

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