Goldman’s equity traders post big haul as credit, rates miss

GOLDMAN Sachs’ equities traders blew past expectations in the third quarter, while its fixed-income and rates-trading counterparts fell far below Wall Street’s estimates.

The company’s equities traders, who in July posted a record of any bank for a third straight quarter, reported revenue of US$6.44 billion for the three months to September, according to a statement on Tuesday (Oct 13).

That is lower than the all-time high from the second quarter of US$7.42 billion, but it still beat the expectations of analysts compiled by Bloomberg.

Fixed-income and commodities traders brought in US$3.47 billion, significantly lower than expected and an almost 1 per cent drop from the year-ago period, after CEO David Solomon warned in September of a slower quarter.

Goldman’s dealmaking machine helped drive growth in the third quarter, with its investment bankers bringing in a higher-than-expected fee haul of US$3.22 billion. The bank’s asset-management unit also drew record management fees.

Goldman has led the rebound in Wall Street dealmaking, while also pulling in billions of dollars from trading around volatile equity and fixed-income markets. Like peers, it has seen its share price retreat in the face of rising bond yields weighing on capital-markets activity.

On Tuesday, Solomon pointed to “a complicated operating environment” and the “current complexity and uncertainty in the world”.

Goldman shares rose more than 3 per cent at 7.49 am in early New York trading. If the price holds up, a fleet of its top executives are in line for a collective payout in excess of US$500 million later this month.

Pay rose along with the bank’s boost in revenue, pushing compensation and benefits expenses to US$5.12 billion, a 9 per cent increase from the year-ago period. Year to date, those expenses are up 17 per cent compared with the same period in 2025.

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The bank’s incentive fees surged by almost eight times from the year-ago period to US$587 million. That was tied to arranging bets for its wealth clients on SpaceX during its early funding rounds, Bloomberg News reported this month. 

Goldman’s revenue from those fees far surpassed the price it was paid for advising on the record IPO.

Goldman also made two key acquisitions in the quarter to expand its more than US$4 trillion asset-management division.

It bought exchange-traded fund provider Neos Investments for US$2.25 billion and LCN Capital Partners, a commercial real-estate investor, for as much as US$410 million. BLOOMBERG