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How Goldman Sachs Beat The Estimates

Expected to do little on Wall Street for the first quarter of the financial year, mega investment firm Goldman Sachs proved the critics wrong by beating the expectations for earnings in the first part of the year with a strong performance.  The criticism of the investment bankers came from a belief that there would be less debt underwriting than hoped in the continuation of the housing crisis, although Goldman Sachs earned well above the estimates. 

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Big Bank Earnings: The Week Ahead Could Be Make Or Break

With five of six of the largest banks in the nation scheduled to report earning results for the fourth quarter, for the financial sector it is a make or break week. On Wednesday morning Goldman Sachs (GS) and JP Morgan (JPM) report. On Thursday it will be Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) while Friday it is Morgan Stanley (MS).

There have been strong gains for bank stocks ahead of these critical earnings reports. The Financial SPDR ETF (XLF) which carefully follows more than 80 diversified financials has shown a gain of over 4% since the beginning of the year and from one year ago 23%.

One of the most revered presidents of the world bank is stepping down. Appointed by President George Bush in 2007, Robert Zoellick was World Bank President for five years, until today when he stepped down. He came from a highly experienced background as a US Trade Representative, former deputy Secretary of State, and working at Goldman Sachs before taking up the presidential seat of the largest bank in the world.

Crisis Initiative Achievements

Zoellick has been recognized as being the positive driving force behind World Bank’s historical role during the most recent economic crisis. During his tenure Zoellick used record financial capacity to assist developing countries with growth and poverty eradication.

This amazing businessman was the first person to alert the developing world to the food crisis that was about to hit and made a point of lending an additional $6billion per year to ensure agriculture could keep up with the demand.

Goldman Sachs Groups and Morgan Stanley have earned billions in profits utilizing fixed income trade procedures over past year or so, but this engine of profits may be stalling in the 2nd quarter as turbulence comes to bond markets.

Earnings estimates for these two investment banking firms have been slashed by analysts recently, due to misgivings regarding fixed income trades, and also merger advisory revenues and stock trades. The two banking firms are due to give reports of their results at the end of this month.