Goldman Sachs reports strong earnings Goldman Sachs shrugged off the market volatility that rocked Wall Street at the end of last month to report $1.93bn in net income for the second quarter, higher than forecast by analysts and more than double what it earned in the same period last year. Revenues for the three months to July jumped 23 per cent to $8.61bn, the bank said in a statement on Tuesday. The higher than expected profit equated to earnings per share of $3.70, more than the $2.89 per share predicted by analysts. Goldman's shares have risen about 28 per cent so far this year, thanks in part to rebounding markets. But both stock and bond markets fell in June after Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, said that the central bank was likely to roll back its bond-buying programme because of an improving US economy. "The firm's performance was solid especially in the context of mixed economic sentiment during the quarter," said Lloyd Blankfein, the bank's chairman and chief executive. Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase also beat second-quarter earnings expectations, helped in part by higher revenues from trading and investment banking, where they advise on big mergers and acquisitions and other types of deals. Some bank products, such as derivatives tied to interest rates, benefited from the upswing in market volatility. Overall trading and investment banking activity surpassed business in the same period last year, but was slower than in the seasonally-strong first quarter, when companies usually refinance their debt. "Activity levels were still fairly decent for the quarter," Barclays banking analysts, led by Roger Freeman, said before the results. Goldman likely "posted some nice year-over-year gains in fixed income, currencies and commodities and equities."