Big banks set to kick off earnings season
The third-quarter earnings season is set to kick off and the big banks are the first group to step into the earnings confessional. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) will kick things off when both report before the opening bell on October 15. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C) are both expected to report next week as well.
Over the past year, the financial sector as a whole and the banking industry have both lagged the overall market—at least based on how the Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLF) and the SPDR S&P Bank ETF (NYSE: KBE) have performed. The S&P is up 5.5% in the past year while the XLF is 2.55% and the KBE is down 7.43%. With interest rates jumping late last year and now declining, it has been a tough stretch for banks.
Looking at how the individual banks have performed, JPMorgan has kept pace with the S&P, but the other three mentioned above have underperformed the market. Citi is up ever so slightly in the past year and Bank of America is down slightly. Wells is down 3.63% in the past year.
For comparison purposes and for the sake of making it easy to compare the four stocks, I put together three separate tables—one that shows the fundamental indicators from Tickeron, one that shows various indicators from Investor’s Business Daily, and one that shows two sentiment indicators.
The table from Tickeron shows that Citi and Wells are both undervalued while Bank of America and JPMorgan are valued fairly. Wells shows solid price growth while Citi shows better P/E Growth than the others.
Due to a technical issue, the SMR rating and the Profit Vs. Risk rating were not available at the time of this writing. I don’t know of another site that has anything like the Profit Vs. Risk rating, but Investor’s Business Daily has a similar version of the SMR rating. The IBD table shows that JPMorgan has the best SMR rating with an A while Bank of America and Citi both receive B ratings. Wells lags the others in this category with a C rating.
All four companies score really well in the EPS rating and that measures a company’s earnings growth against all other companies in IBD’s data base. The RS rating is a price relative strength rating and that reflects the price performance I mentioned earlier where JPMorgan has kept pace with the S&P while the others have lagged slightly.
As for the sentiment indicators, all of the short interest ratios are below average with JPMorgan having the highest one at 2.4. The average short interest ratio is the neighborhood of 3.0.
As for the analysts’ ratings, we see that Citi is pretty highly thought of by the analysts and it is the only one showing extreme optimism in this category. Wells is the least favorite stock of the four, but with all of the issues the company has had in the past few years that is to be expected. JPMorgan is a little surprising in this category given how well the stock has done and how solid the fundamentals are for the company.
Looking at all three aspects of analysis—fundamentals, sentiment, and technical factors—I like JPMorgan the best with Bank of America as my second favorite. I don’t know if there is anything here to think any of the stocks will do more than keep pace with the overall market, but if I had to pick one it would be JPMorgan Chase.
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Harry Richardson — Algorithmic Trader & Strategy Developer Harry is an algorithmic trader specializing in impulse and breakout trading strategies across cryptocurrency and equity markets. With more than 10 years of experience in developing automated trading systems, he focuses on building structured algorithms designed to capture momentum while maintaining strict risk control. His approach combines quantitative analysis, real-market execution, and continuous performance monitoring. Vitalii prioritizes risk management, drawdown control, and strategy stability over short-term optimization, ensuring algorithms are adaptable to changing market conditions. He has developed and tested hundreds of automated strategies, working extensively with live trading environments, forward testing, and portfolio-level algorithm management. His work centers on transforming trading ideas into fully operational, scalable automated systems.
JPM in -1.71% downward trend, sliding for three consecutive days on September 30, 2026
Moving lower for three straight days is viewed as a bearish sign. Keep an eye on this stock for future declines. Considering data from situations where JPM declined for three days, in 155 of 263 cases, the price declined further within the following month. The odds of a continued downward trend are 59%.
Technical Analysis (Indicators)
Bearish Trend Analysis
The Momentum Indicator moved below the 0 level on September 14, 2026. You may want to consider selling the stock, shorting the stock, or exploring put options on JPM as a result. In 30 of 81 cases where the Momentum Indicator fell below 0, the stock fell further within the subsequent month. The odds of a continued downward trend are 37%.
JPM moved below its 50-day moving average on September 16, 2026 date and that indicates a change from an upward trend to a downward trend.
The 10-day moving average for JPM crossed bearishly below the 50-day moving average on September 18, 2026. This indicates that the trend has shifted lower and could be considered a sell signal. In 6 of 14 past instances when the 10-day crossed below the 50-day, the stock continued to move higher over the following month. The odds of a continued downward trend are 43%.
The Aroon Indicator for JPM entered a downward trend on October 06, 2026. This could indicate a strong downward move is ahead for the stock. Traders may want to consider selling the stock or buying put options.
Bullish Trend Analysis
The RSI Oscillator points to a transition from a downward trend to an upward trend -- in cases where JPM's RSI Indicator exited the oversold zone, 20 of 28 resulted in an increase in price. Tickeron's analysis proposes that the odds of a continued upward trend are 71%.
The Stochastic Oscillator shows that the ticker has stayed in the oversold zone for 9 days. The price of this ticker is presumed to bounce back soon, since the longer the ticker stays in the oversold zone, the more promptly an upward trend is expected.
Following a +1.64% 3-day Advance, the price is estimated to grow further. Considering data from situations where JPM advanced for three days, in 217 of 365 cases, the price rose further within the following month. The odds of a continued upward trend are 59%.
JPM may jump back above the lower band and head toward the middle band. Traders may consider buying the stock or exploring call options.
Fundamental Analysis (Ratings)
The Tickeron SMR rating for this company is 1 (best 1 - 100 worst), indicating very strong sales and a profitable business model. SMR (Sales, Margin, Return on Equity) rating is based on comparative analysis of weighted Sales, Income Margin and Return on Equity values compared against S&P 500 index constituents. The weighted SMR value is a proprietary formula developed by Tickeron and represents an overall profitability measure for a stock.
The Tickeron Profit vs. Risk Rating rating for this company is 10 (best 1 - 100 worst), indicating low risk on high returns. The average Profit vs. Risk Rating rating for the industry is 21, placing this stock better than average.
The Tickeron PE Growth Rating for this company is 52 (best 1 - 100 worst), pointing to average earnings growth. The PE Growth rating is based on a comparative analysis of stock PE ratio increase over the last 12 months compared against S&P 500 index constituents.
The Tickeron Price Growth Rating for this company is 54 (best 1 - 100 worst), indicating fairly steady price growth. JPM’s price grows at a lower rate over the last 12 months as compared to S&P 500 index constituents.
The Tickeron Seasonality Score of 65 (best 1 - 100 worst) indicates that the company is fair valued in the industry. The Tickeron Seasonality score describes the variance of predictable price changes around the same period every calendar year. These changes can be tied to a specific month, quarter, holiday or vacation period, as well as a meteorological or growing season.
The Tickeron Valuation Rating of 87 (best 1 - 100 worst) indicates that the company is significantly overvalued in the industry. This rating compares market capitalization estimated by our proprietary formula with the current market capitalization. This rating is based on the following metrics, as compared to industry averages: JPM's P/B Ratio (2.530) is slightly higher than the industry average of (1.866). P/E Ratio (14.421) is within average values for comparable stocks, (14.888). Projected Growth (PEG Ratio) (1.562) is also within normal values, averaging (2.139). JPM has a moderately low Dividend Yield (0.018) as compared to the industry average of (0.026). P/S Ratio (4.888) is also within normal values, averaging (3.867).
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