Goldman Sachs’ first quarter results revealed significant decreases in trading revenues compared to the previous year, as it becomes the latest investment bank to report a difficult Q1.
Its investment banking revenues for the first quarter of 2016 were 23% lower than Q1 last year, totalling $1.46 billion.
Goldman Sachs saw a difficult first quarter for both fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC) and equities compared to last year.
It’s FICC unit saw revenues drop 47% to $1.66 billion in the first quarter this year compared to 2015.
Goldman said its FICC business had “operated in a challenging environment characterised by economic uncertainty and difficult market-making decision” in its report.
Equities revenues also dropped year-on-year, totalling $1.78 billion for Q1 2016, down 23% from last year’s first quarter.
Goldman Sachs explained the decreases in equities “reflected significantly lower net revenues in both cash products and derivatives”.
Lloyd C. Blankfein, CEO, Goldman Sachs said: “The operating environment this quarter presented a broad range of challenges, resulting in headwinds across virtually every one of our businesses.”
Morgan Stanley also reported a 50% decrease in fixed income revenues for Q1, while Citi revealed a 27% fall in revenues in the same period.