JPMorgan’s Bond Traders Just Taught Goldman a Lesson

Big banks have ridden a dealmaking boom that’s helped drive demand for corporate loans and pulled record-breaking fees from the wild swings in financial markets. But the most surprising and intriguing news so far in this week’s earnings parade was the diverging fortunes of bond traders at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The war in the Middle East has created a huge amount of uncertainty since the US and Israeli attacks on Iran began at the end of February, but mergers and acquisitions still got done and US commercial and industrial loans jumped by the most in more than three years. Fund raising by companies was also strong for most of the first quarter, offering early hope of fat bonuses for investment bankers and traders.