JPMorgan misses estimates, caused by trading troubles

NEW YORK (AP) — JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s fourth-quarter profits badly missed analysts' forecasts on Tuesday, caused by weakness in the bank's bond-trading business.

The nation's largest bank said it earned $7.07 billion in the last three months of the year, or $1.98 per share, up from $4.23 billion, or $1.07 a share, in the same period a year earlier.

Last year's results were impacted by the passage of the Republicans' tax law, which caused many big banks to make accounting adjustments and write off billions of dollars in what are known as tax-deferred assets.

So while JPMorgan's profits were up 67 percent from a year earlier, they still missed Wall Street's expectations. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were looking for JPMorgan to earn $2.