JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are kicking off earnings season
Another earnings season is kicking off, with JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) kicking the floodgates open. Though both banks beat first-quarter earnings and revenue expectations amid record stock trading and strong wealth management, executives still warned of the impact tariffs could have on the economy.
JPM was last seen 3.2% higher to trade at $234.26, pacing for its fourth gain in the last five sessions after bouncing off its lowest level since September. The 20-day moving average is once again keeping a cap on gains after briefly flipping into support in late March. The equity is on track for its best week since May 2022, and sports an 19.9% year-over-year lead.
Drilling down to today's options activity, JPM has seen 48,000 calls and 26,000 puts cross the tape -- triple the intraday average volume. Most active is the May 265 call, where new positions are being sold to open.
MS is down 0.3% at $106.26 at last glance, testing resistance at the 320-day moving average. The shares are eyeing their best weekly performance since January, however, and added 23.9% in the last 12 months, though earlier this week they fell to their lowest level since September.
Short-term options traders lean bearish toward MS. This is per the security's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.43 that sits in the 96th percentile of readings from the past year.