NEW YORK — Goldman Sachs navigated yet another quarter of market turmoil and tight credit, with runaway prices of commodities such as oil and gold helping to drive profit.
The world’s biggest investment bank parlayed skyrocketing prices in energy and other commodities into net second- quarter income of more than $2 billion. Results from its commodities business almost matched the first quarter’s record performance, said Goldman’s chief financial officer.
Though investment bankers and asset managers won’t be shoved aside by Goldman’s commodities traders any time soon, the strong performance is one demonstration of Goldman’s reach during market upheaval. The same can be said about areas such as its prime brokerage, where Goldman executes trades on behalf of hedge funds and other institutional investors.
“Nobody really knows what the next hot area next to investment banking and trading will be, so the key becomes having diversified capabilities and being nimble enough to move where the opportunities present themselves,” said Jeffery Harte, an analyst with Sandler O’Neil. “Unfortunately, if you get in a bear market, diversification carries you only so far — Goldman is still down year over year.”
The company reported a profit of $2.05 billion, $4.58 per share, for the three months ended May 30, compared with $2.29 billion, $4.93 per share, a year earlier.
The results easily surpassed Wall Street expectations.
