Investment banks start earnings season with robust profits
January 21, 2025
The US banking sector closed 2024 with strong results as JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs reported quarterly results beating Wall Street expectations. These reflect last year's market recovery after previous declines. Optimism persists in expectations for future periods, although some risks remain.
ABB has shown that the story of artificial intelligence is no longer limited to chips, software, and the biggest names in American tech. The Swiss group’s results suggest that the next phase of this trend is increasingly shifting toward industry, energy, and infrastructure, segments that are essential to the entire digital world but often remain outside the main focus of investors. That is precisely why ABB’s latest quarterly results deserve more than just a quick glance at the headline numbers, as they can reveal a great deal about where new growth is actually emerging today.
ASML entered 2026 with results that confirmed strong demand for its technologies while raising market expectations. The company reported first-quarter revenue of €8.8 billion, a gross margin of 53%, basic earnings per share of €7.15*, and R&D expenses of €1.2 billion, demonstrating its ability to maintain strong profitability even while continuing to invest in future products.
When the biggest players in the tech market stop talking about vision and start reserving physical computing capacity years in advance, the nature of the entire industry changes. Nvidia will supply Amazon’s cloud division with up to 1 million GPU chips by the end of 2027, with deliveries set to begin as early as this year. At first glance, this is just another major corporate deal in AI. In reality, however, this news reveals something more significant.
Bill Ackman has once again launched a major capital play, this time in one of the most stable and profitable segments of the media business. His firm, Pershing Square, has submitted a non-binding offer to acquire Universal Music Group valued at approximately €55.75 billion, or about $64.31 billion. The goal is not only the acquisition itself but also to move the company closer to the U.S. market, achieve a higher valuation, and expand its investor base.
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