DIMON DOES IT
Even in the worst of times, Jamie Dimon keeps sprinting ahead in his winning streak.
Although Dimon said his JPMorgan Chase’s profit plunged 50 percent – and openly warned housing will only get worse – he drew enough investor cheering to help fuel a powerful stock rally across three continents yesterday.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 2.1 percent to 12,619.27, up 256.80, and the S&P’s 500 index rose 30.28, or 2.3 percent, to 1,364.71. The Nasdaq composite index gained 2.8 percent to 2,350.11, up 64.07.
Analysts were bracing for a first-quarter profit picture worse than the one the JPMorgan boss presented.
Profit tumbled to $2.37 billion from $4.79 billion a year ago, with revenue down 11 percent to $16.9 billion. Analysts expected a per-share profit of 64 cents, but Dimon beat their forecast with 68 cents.
The bank shifted $5.1 billion to improve the balance sheet, including a $2.5 million reserve and another $2.6 billion to offset portfolio losses.
Dimon “appears to be managing the credit storm very well,” Goldman Sachs analyst William Tanona wrote in a research note.
JPMorgan’s chief also yesterday became the fourth investment bank head to proclaim in recent days that the darkest days of the credit crisis are behind them.
“I do think we’re well more than half way through – maybe 75 to 80 percent through,” he told reporters.
However, he warned the weakening economy could have an impact into next year. Dimon also said housing prices could slide another 9 percent in a slowing economy and also start “burning through the prime mortgage market” of better assets.
JPMorgan’s current $447 million in charge-offs of home-equity loans may double by the fourth quarter, the bank said.
Profits included a $955 million gain from its stake in credit-card giant Visa, which just went public.
JPM jumped 6.7 percent to $44.96, up $2.84.
Dimon said the merger of Bears Stearns with JPMorgan, expected to close in June, will save about $1 billion a year. He said the complex combination is being run “kind of like a military operation . . . maybe even 1,000 people are involved now.”