JPMorgan profit rises as expenses fall

REUTERS - JPMorgan Chase & Co , the biggest U.S. bank by assets, reported a 5.2 percent increase in quarterly profit as expenses declined.

Net income rose to $6.29 billion from $5.98 billion a year earlier. On a per share basis, the bank earned $1.54 compared with $1.46 in the year-earlier period.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of $1.44 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It was not immediately clear if the reported results were comparable.

Revenue from fixed-income trading fell 21 percent to $2.93 billion. Adjusted for the sale of a physical commodities businesses last year, it would have fallen 10 percent.

JPMorgan is the first of the U.S. banks with large capital markets and investment banking operations to report second-quarter results.

Overall, the banks are expected to show flat to lower revenue from fixed-income trading from a year earlier, which was a relatively strong period.

(Reporting by Sweta Singh and Richa Naidu in Bengaluru, David Henry in New York; Editing by Ted Kerr)