Goldman Sachs’s Third-Quarter Profit Soars

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. third-quarter profit nearly doubled, the latest confirmation that, even in a pandemic and a recession, Wall Street can still make money. 

Goldman reported a quarterly profit of $3.62 billion, or $9.68 a share, on revenue of $10.78 billion. Both measures were better than the expectations of stock analysts, who forecast $1.94 billion in profit, or $5.54 a share, on revenue of $9.38 billion. Goldman posted a profit of $1.88 billion, or $4.79 a share, in the third quarter of 2019. 

Worries that the coronavirus would rival 2008 as a threat to the U.S. financial system have subsided for now. Banks’ trading fees have surged. Bond investors’ appetite has allowed companies that borrowed billions from banks in emergency loans this spring to pay them back. Big corporate bankruptcies have leveled off. 

Pain may still lie ahead, especially if unemployment stays high and a resurgence in the virus sparks new or tougher lockdowns. But unlike the 2008 crisis, when banks posted multibillion-dollar losses, today’s lenders are still squarely in the black. And they aren’t facing the same investor panic that sparked fatal bank runs last time around.