Shares of financial companies

Major US banks JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) reported their fourth quarter 2020 results. Shares in all three banks declined on Friday amid a general market decline following a pessimistic government report on US retail sales, high unemployment and COVID-19 incidence.

JPMorgan's earnings and profits

JPMorgan shares reacted on Friday with the smallest drop of 1.8% (among the three banks named) as the bank's quarterly report beat market analysts average estimates.

JPMorgan's Q4 earnings per share rose 19% (from a year ago) to $3.07.

Revenue rose 3% to $29.2bn, also beating analyst forecasts of $28.7bn.

While consumer banking revenues fell 8% to $12.73bn, fixed income trading, equity trading, investment banking and wealth management revenues rose 15%, 32%, 37% and 10% respectively.

Citigroup shares down 7%

Citigroup reported lower earnings for its 4Q than Wall Street expected, citing a 14% drop in revenues at its core consumer division Global Consumer Banking. Citi executives said that low interest rates and declining card transaction volumes were the reasons for the drop.

Citigroup's Q4 earnings per share fell 3% to $2.08.

Revenue fell 10% to $16.5 billion.

Revenue from consumer banking fell as much as 14% to $7.3 billion and investment banking fell 5% to $1.3 billion.

Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat said: "We remain very well capitalised and have high liquidity to serve our clients".

Wells Fargo shares down

Wells Fargo shares reacted with the biggest drop of 7.8% among the three named as the bank's earnings declines for several consecutive quarters caused concern among investors.

In recent quarters, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Investment Company (BRKB) has more than halved its stake in the company to 127.38 million shares, or 3.3% of Wells Fargo. 34 hedge funds reduced their total holdings in Wells Fargo by 40.8 million shares in the last quarter.

Wells Fargo's earnings per share for Q4 rose 4% to $0.64.

At the same time, quarterly revenue fell 10% to $17.93 billion.

On Friday, shares of two other major US banks Bank of America (BAC) and Goldman Sachs (GS), which report on Tuesday, were down 2.9% and 2.2%.