JPMorgan Chase is set to report first-quarter earnings – here’s what the Street expects

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JPMorgan Chase is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings before the opening bell Wednesday.

Here's what Wall Street expects:

JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, will be watched closely for clues to how Wall Street fared during a tumultuous first quarter.

On the one hand, investment banking fees are expected to plunge because of a slowdown in mergers, IPOs and debt issuance in the period. On the other hand, spikes in volatility and market dislocations caused by the Ukraine war may have benefited some fixed income desks.

That means there may be more winners and losers on Wall Street than usual this quarter: Firms that navigated the choppy markets well could exceed expectations after analysts slashed estimates in recent weeks, while others could disclose trading blow-ups.

JPMorgan said last month that its trading revenue dropped 10% through early March, but that turbulence tied to the Ukraine war and sanctions on Russia made further forecasts impossible.

«The markets are extremely treacherous at the moment; there's a lot of uncertainty,» Troy Rohrbaugh, JPMorgan's global markets chief, said during the March 8 conference. «The full ramifications of the current conditions are still uncertain.»

Another area of focus for investors is how the industry is taking advantage of rising interest rates, which tend to fatten banks' lending margins. Analysts also anticipate improving loan growth as Federal Reserve data show banks' loans grew 8% in the first quarter, driven by commercial borrowers.

Still, while longer-term rates rose during the quarter, short term rates rose more, and that flat, or in some cases inverted, yield curve spurred concerns about a recession ahead. Banks sell off when investors worry