A Bank of America branch in New York, US, on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. Bank of America Corp. is scheduled to release earnings figures on October 14. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Bank of America stock is getting hammered on Wednesday.
Shares of the bank fell nearly 9% intraday after earnings revealed weak stock and bond trading.
BofA also stood out among other banks with a hefty $1.2 billion fine.
Bank earnings have been a relatively mundane affair this season, but Bank of America is having a tougher time than its US bulge-bracket peers after reporting results.
BofA stock plunged as much as nearly 9% on Wednesday following a lackluster third-quarter earnings report, putting it on track for its worst trading day since April 2025. Weaker-than-expected bond trading, combined with a $1.2 billion regulatory penalty to weigh on the shares.
Bond trading revenue fell 17%, offsetting a 10% gain in stock trading revenue. Investment banking revenue also dipped in the quarter, and total revenue of almost $30 billion missed analysts’ estimates.
While other banks had some weak spots in their own earnings, particularly as volatility in fixed-income markets rattled bond traders, BofA’s losses on Wednesday stood out among the big firms to report results this week.
Daniela Hathorn, a senior market analyst at Capital.com, noted that although Goldman Sachs , JPMorgan and Citigroup delivered solid results for the quarter, that did little to lift the broader market so far this week. Markets were shaken again by a hotter-than-expected consumer inflation report, with stocks falling and bond yields rising on Wednesday.
Bank of America’s regulatory fine is related to money laundering and sanctions violations. The Treasury Department said that BofA failed to report billions in suspicious transactions.
“When a bank of this size fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations, the consequences extend far beyond its own walls, exposing the entire U.S. financial system to significant illicit finance risks,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a press release . “Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.”
Discounting BofA’s troubles, bank earnings haven’t given investors much any new reason to fret. Card spending from JPMorgan customers continues to hold up, even as the economy faces headwinds, and tighter financial conditions haven’t led to widespread business distress, thus far.
And despite BofA’s tumble on Wednesday, there’s optimism that the volatility will be short-lived for the second-biggest US bank.
“It will be interesting to see how it settles out here,” said Macrae Sykes, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds. “There were some idiosyncratic components to how they weren’t as competitive on markets business in the quarter, but as a group, the banking group is going to be doing very well.”
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