Goldman Sachs to cut more jobs

Goldman Sachs Group Inc plans to cut more jobs as a difficult economic environment weighs on dealmaking and trading revenue may slump 25 per cent this quarter, the bank’s president said.

“The macro backdrop is extraordinarily challenging,” Goldman’s president and chief operating officer, John Waldron, told investors at a conference, without specifying the scale of the layoffs.

Goldman Sachs shares closed down 2.3 per cent on Thursday, in contrast to the S&P 500 financial index, which rose 1.1 per cent on the day. The firm is expected to cut just under 250 jobs in the coming weeks, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters in May. In January, it let go of about 3,200 employees, its biggest head count reduction since the 2008 financial crisis. Staffing cutbacks will help the Wall Street titan achieve its goal of reducing payroll expenses by $600 million, a target set in February that may be surpassed by the end of the year, Waldron said.

Revenue for both equities and fixed-income trading is expected to decline 25 per cent this quarter compared with a year earlier, when rising interest rates and the war in Ukraine boosted market activity and fueled a 32 per cent surge in revenue for its trading division.

“If you think about global banking and markets, the capital markets activity is more sluggish,” Waldron said. Meanwhile, “activity levels are more muted” in equities and fixed income, he said.

Waldron’s comments echo those of Wall Street rivals. Andy Saperstein, co-president of Morgan Stanley, warned on Wednesday that trading results will be “notably down” in the second quarter versus a year earlier, while “investment banking is also very challenged.”

Bank of America Corp expects investment banking fees and trading revenue to be broadly flat this quarter compared with a year earlier, its CEO, Brian Moynihan, said at the same conference on Thursday.