JPMorgan profit hurt by drop in investment banking revenue

JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest US bank by assets, reported a 6.7 percent drop in quarterly profit as costs to cover possible sour loans to troubled shale oil companies rose and revenue from trading and investment banking declined.

However, both earnings per share and revenue beat analysts' lowered expectations.

The bank's net income fell to $5.52 billion in the first quarter ended March 31, from $5.91 billion a year earlier. On a per-share basis, earnings fell to $1.35 from $1.45.

Analysts had expected earnings of $1.26 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Total revenue fell 3 percent to $24.08 billion, beating the average estimate of $23.40 billion, while revenue from fixed-income trading - often JPMorgan's most volatile business - fell 13.4 percent to $3.60 billion.

JPMorgan is the first US bank to report results since the Federal Reserve's decision in December to raise interest rates by 0.25 percentage points, the first hike in nearly a decade.

A slide in commodity and oil prices, a slowdown in China, near-zero interest rates, mounting regulatory costs and hefty capital requirements have set up the banking industry for its worst start to a new year since the 2007-2008 financial crisis.