Wall Street securities industry posts record $45.9B first-half 2026 profits (+51.3%), on track for ~$90B record year per NY comptroller
What happened
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office reported Tuesday that New York City's securities industry generated $45.9 billion in profits in the first half of 2026, up 51.3% from the same period in 2025 — already surpassing the office's May forecast of $45.3B for the entire year. The comptroller projected full-year profits could reach $90 billion, up nearly 40% from 2025's $65.1B total, which would be a record. The report attributed the surge to robust trading in stocks, bonds and currencies, investment-banking fees, and the IPO revival: AI-related venture capital spending hit $407 billion in H1 2026, already exceeding the $264B full-year 2025 total, and underwriting revenues jumped 68% year over year. The industry's NYC workforce hit a record 207,400; average compensation (incl. bonuses) rose 11.1% to $561,770 in 2025, and the 2025 bonus pool was a record $49.2B. The industry generated $7.8B in NYC tax revenue (+15.8%) and $26.3B for the state (+28.5%).
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Start your free 14-day trialWho’s affected
- Large-cap banks: Goldman Sachs GS, JPMorgan JPM, Morgan Stanley MS, Bank of America BAC, Citigroup C — report Q3 earnings Oct 13-14; record H1 profits support sentiment but also raise the bar
- Financials sector broadly (trading, underwriting, asset-management fee exposure)
- Anthropic (expected IPO this year, potentially valued at $2T — another underwriting windfall)
- Crypto-adjacent names: institutional BTC accumulation continues (Strategy added 334 BTC, Strive bought 2,000 BTC) though BTC ~$86K underperforms on rising yields