Banks Doing Fine

The world’s stock markets may be slumping, but Wall Street’s top firms are still raking in cash. Bloomberg News reports that analysts expect second-half net income at the U.S.’s five biggest securities firms will jump 10% by buoyed trading revenue and investment banking backlogs. “We’re very optimistic going into the second half,” Morgan Stanley CFO David Sidwell tells Bloomberg, which has seen its M&A business boom over the past quarter. Sandler O’Neill analyst Jeffery Harte is similarly buoyant about the Street: “We’re not seeing any weakness in M&A, we’re not seeing any weakness in the IPO market, and we’re not seeing any weakness in secondary offerings,” he said. “I think people are going to be surprised by the revenue strength these guys can post.” Still, there are voices of concern. “Right now, the markets are week, but corporate activity is still quite strong,” Goldman Sachs Group CFO David Viniar told Bloomberg. “If markets stay week for a long period of time, CEO and investor confidence will diminish.” Which is not to say his firm’s confidence is anything but expansive: Goldman plans to increase its workforce by 2,000 this year.