Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs reported quarterly earnings and revenue on Wednesday that far exceeded Wall Street predictions.
Earnings excluding items jumped to $5.60 per share from $1.84 a share in the year-earlier period, with net revenues improving to $9.24 billion from $6.05 billion a year ago.
Wall Street had expected Goldman Sachs to report earnings excluding items of $3.78 a share on $7.91 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.
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The investment bank's shares surged more than two percent before the opening bell, following the news. Goldman's stock has been rising on the optimism of a recovering economy, investor inflows into stocks, and expectations that the investment bank is well positioned for a wave of mergers and acquisitions.
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