Bank of America's Balance Sheet Will Be All the Talk After Earnings Come Out


Bank of America will have all eyes on its balance sheet when it reports third-quarter earnings before Tuesday's opening bell.

The expectations for $Bank of America(BAC)$  are muted, especially compared with the strong showings last week from $JPMorgan Chase(JPM)$ , $Citigroup(C)$ , and $Wells Fargo(WFC)$ . Profit is expected to be $6.7 billion, slightly higher than the year-ago quarter, amounting to earnings of 83 cents a share on revenue of $25.1 billion.

Net interest income, which has been a savior for banks in this shaky economy, is expected to climb 2%, to $14.1 billion.

In contrast, JPMorgan had a 30% year-over-year jump in net interest income because of its acquisition of First Republic Bank in May. And Wells Fargo's net interest income climbed 8%.

Yet even with the jump in net interest income, bank executives have cautioned that the boom days could be ending soon. JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon cautioned last week that the bank may be "over-earning."

With Wall Street tempering its expectations on more net interest income gains, investors will be looking to other parts of Bank of America's business as it posts results -- and that means the balance sheet.

Barron's has reported that Bank of America has emerged as the "problem child" of the big banks.

Its holdings of low-yielding mortgage securities and government debt had it sitting on unrealized losses of $105.8 billion as of the close of the second quarter -- nearly a fifth of the industrywide unrealized losses on bondholdings due to the Federal Reserve rapidly hiking interest rates.

Even worse, those paper losses are forecast to have climbed another $10 billion to $15 billion in the third quarter -- driven by the spike in bond yields, according to a Barron's estimate.

Because of Bank of America's "too big to fail" status, few expect the lender to suffer anything near the same fate that led to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, but the paper losses are a gigantic drag.

It's a problem that Bank of America is well-aware of.

Bank of America shares are down 18% this year; the $KBW Nasdaq Bank Index(.BKX.US) is off by 23%.


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# Bank earnings coming! Surprise or Shock?

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