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Jim Cramer is generally positive on major banks post-earnings

Virginia Sherwood | CNBC
  • CNBC's Jim Cramer on Wednesday reviewed major banks' earnings performance, saying he's pleased with the sector overall.
  • He gave his take on quarters from JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

CNBC's Jim Cramer on Wednesday reviewed major banks' performance after the group released their reports en masse over the past several days. Cramer said he's pleased with earnings in the sector overall, even though some banks' shares slipped after their reports.

"When you go through the actual results from the big banks, they're pretty good," he said. "I feel much better about the group than I did last week, even if their stocks don't yet tell the story, and the market has gotten really hard."

  • JPMorgan Chase: JPMorgan topped Wall Street's earnings expectations even though shares sank after the report. Cramer said this sell-off may be because the company didn't raise its interest income forecast as much as Wall Street had hoped, adding that the stock had simply run too much going into earnings.
  • Wells Fargo: Cramer called Wells Fargo's quarter "solid if unspectacular," but asserted that "unspectacular" is fine.
  • Citigroup: Citigroup's earnings were better than expected, Cramer noted. But Cramer said its stock suffered because of negative trends in the company's retail services business.
  • Bank of America: Cramer called Bank of America's quarter "solid enough." But management was optimistic about the future, and Cramer said he believes them, adding that the stock's pullback could be a buying opportunity.
  • Goldman Sachs: Cramer said he'd argue that Goldman Sachs had the best quarter of the group. He praised the the company's strength in sales and trading operations, as well as its investment banking and brokerage business.
  • Morgan Stanley: To Cramer, Morgan Stanley delivered a good quarter, saying its shift to wealth and asset management is working. But its stock suffered after the Wall Street Journal reported that federal regulators were investigating its wealth management vetting process. However, Cramer noted that Morgan Stanley's shares managed to recover, saying he thinks management sees this as a "run-of-the-mill interaction with regulators," and "any costs that come from it should already be baked into the numbers."

Spokespeople from JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America declined to comment. Citigroup also declined to comment, but pointed CNBC towards its CFO's commentary during the earnings call. Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to request for comment.

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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust holds shares of Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley.

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