US sharemarkets fell from record highs overnight, the Dow Jones up just 0.2% on the back of strength in the investment banks with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 falling 1.0% and 0.4%, respectively.
Coinbase makes its debut
Overnight, the long-awaited IPO of crypto trading platform Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) finally occurred, with the company soaring ahead of its listing price.
Coinbase stock closed the session at US$328.28, up 31.3% on debut, valuing the company at a whopping US$85.8 billion.
LVMH shows resilience
France’s Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (EPA: MC) smashed expectations, with revenues jumping 9% over the previous year on the back of strong US and Chinese demand.
The company is still digesting the purchase of Tiffany and Co, but its fashion and leather goods division, and key product lines, grew sales at 52% compared to 2020 and 37% on the pre-pandemic quarter; shares jumped 2.9%.
Investment banks post record profits
Both investment banks smashed expectations overnight, delivering record profits on the back of huge growth in their investment banking or transactional income – Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) reported a 73% increase and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) 46%.
This supported a 14% increase in net revenue for JP Morgan to US$33.1 billion as quarterly profits increased five-fold to US$14.3 billion.
For Goldman Sachs, quarterly revenue more than doubled to US$17.7 billion, supporting record quarterly profits of US$6.8 billion.