Investment-banking and trading revenues hit an eight-year high in the first half of 2020, a counterintuitive boom that shows the heavy hand of the Federal Reserve and a growing gulf between financial markets and the real economy. Global banks raked in fees from companies scrambling to raise cash and panicky investors scrambling to sell, then buy again as markets surged. Revenue in these traditional Wall Street businesses was 32% higher than in the same period last year, bucking years of sideways and downward drifts, according...

Source: Wall Street Journal September 03, 2020 18:42 UTC