NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 17, 2017 / The Financial Sector has been amongst the top performers since Election Day as the general consensus has been a Donald Trump presidency would mean looser financial regulations and higher inflation. The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund has gained 17.7 percent since November 8th, 2016.

"The big question now is whether this move is overdone. Will more interest-rate increases materialize in 2017, boosting banks' profitability, or will we see rising rates fizzle like in 2016?" said Christian Magoon, Chief Executive and founder at Amplify ETFs. "I lean toward fizzle now and think XLF and financials have gotten ahead of themselves."

On Friday, Bank of America JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co. kicked off earnings season. The S&P 500 Financials Sector rose by as much 2.3 percent, before settling to close up 0.55 percent, compared to a gain of 0.18 percent for the S&P 500 as a whole.

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Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC)

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Bank of America's shares gained 0.39 percent to close at $23.01 a share Friday. The stock traded between $22.80 and $23.41 on volume of 161.93 million shares traded. The company reported earnings per share of $0.40 on revenue of $19.99 billion, mainly due to improvement in credit quality and continued cost cutting. Analysts expectations had called for adjusted earnings per share of $0.38 on revenue of $20.76 billion, according to data from Bloomberg. Reported expenses for fourth quarter fell 6 percent, more than expected, to $13.2 billion, due to declines in compensation and data-processing costs. The company has reported revenue of $10.3 billion net interest income and expects net interest income to increase by $600 million in first quarter of 2017, assuming current level of interest rates. Bank of America announced that it would increase its stock-buyback program to $4.3 billion from $2.5 billion for the first half of 2017.

"Strong client activity and good expense discipline created solid operating leverage again this quarter. While the recent rise in interest rates came too late to impact fourth-quarter results, we expect to see a significant increase in net interest income in the first quarter of 2017," commented Paul M. Donofrio, Chief Financial Officer.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM)

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JPMorgan's shares gained 0.53 percent to close at $86.70 a share Friday. The stock traded between $86.10 and $88.17 on volume of 28.30 million shares traded. The company reported earnings of $6.73 billion, or $1.71 per share on revenue of $24.3 billion, for the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to a profit of $5.43 billion, or $1.32 a share, in the third quarter of 2015. Analyst's expectations had called for a profit of $1.44 a share, according to analysts' polled by Thomson Reuters. JPMorgan's earning were a driven by a 24 percent boost in trading revenues and improvement in loan quality. Trading revenues totaled a record $4.52 billion in the quarter, compared to $3.64 billion a year ago. The company provisioned $864 million for credit losses, against $1.25 billion provisioned in same quarter prior year.

"Our results this quarter were a strong end to another record year, reflecting our intense client focus and solid performance across our businesses," said CEO Jamie Dimon, in an earnings release. "We grew market share in virtually all of our businesses and showed expense discipline while continuing to invest for the future."

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