It seems as though the volatility and slow growth from 2015 might be catching up with some major companies in 2016.
Goldman Sach’s recently released their first quarter numbers, which were not pretty.
According to a Yahoo! Finance article, based on Goldman’s numbers, “Revenue plunged 40% year-over-year to $6.34 billion. This was worse than the $7.11 billion expected by analysts. Earnings per share plunged 56% to $2.68, however that bottom line was better than the $2.48 expected.”
Their investment banking revenues also dropped substantially, almost to 25 percent. These changes are felt by a number of things, but it was mainly due to a volatile year and the rough emerging markets we saw in 2015.
Goldman Sach’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein said, "The operating environment this quarter presented a broad range of challenges, resulting in headwinds across virtually every one of our businesses.”
Even though one company might not seem as though it would have a major impact on our economy, a major corporation, such as Goldman, can have a huge impact. One quarter of bad news won’t derail a company as large as Goldman, even with numbers as poor as they have been showing.
When other companies such as JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley start to show poor numbers for consecutive quarters, it can begin to spell trouble.
It will be interesting to see how long the volatility and rough 2015 numbers last, and if they will continue to drag into 2016, and how the big banks will respond to the market uncertainty we have already seen this year.
