Shares of Bank of America Corp. rallied 2.0% in premarket trading Wednesday, after the moneycenter bank reported fourth-quarter profit that rose above expectations while revenue came up a bit shy, while growth in loans and deposits helped boost net interest income (NII) despite a challenging interest rate environment. Net income rose to $6.77 billion, or 82 cent a share, from $5.21 billion, or 59 cents a share, in the year ago period, and beat the FactSet consensus of 77 cents. Total revenue rose 9.8% to $22.06 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $22.18 billion, as NII grew 11.3% to $11.41 billion to top expectations of $11.32 billion. Within business segments, consumer banking revenue rose 8% to $8.9 billion, global wealth and investment management revenue rose 16% to a record $5.4 billion and global banking revenue increased 24% to $5.9 billion, while global markets revenue fell 2% to $3.8 billion. Within markets, equities revenue rose 3% to $1.4 billion while fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC) revenue fell 10% to $1.6 billion. The stock has slipped 0.5% over the past three months through Tuesday, while the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF has been little changed and the S&P 500 has gained 1.3%.
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