By Hannah Erin Lang
Charles Schwab's quarterly profit climbed 30%, lifted by a flurry of client trading activity and volatile financial markets.
Schwab's first-quarter net income totaled $2.48 billion, up from $1.91 billion a year ago. Excluding certain one-time items such as acquisition costs, Schwab earned $1.43 a share in the most-recent period. That beat estimates of $1.40 from analysts polled by FactSet.
Revenue rose 16% year-over-year, the company said, driven in part by a 20% jump in trading revenue. Net interest income, or what Schwab collects on the spread between what it earns on loans and securities, and what it pays to its depositors, increased 16%. Total client assets climbed 19% to $11.8 trillion.
Schwab investors were as busy as ever. The brokerage's daily average trades climbed to a record 9.9 million in February, the company said last month. And margin-loan balances, or what clients borrowed from Schwab to buy securities, rose 13% from the last three months of 2025.
Trading desks throughout Wall Street had a banner quarter, with clients rushing to cash in on market swings triggered by surging oil prices and a war with Iran. Across the nation's six biggest banks, trading revenue was up 17% from a year ago at $45 billion -- even as the S&P 500 suffered its worst quarter in nearly four years.
Schwab's shares inched higher in premarket trading. The stock was lifted earlier this week by the news that regulators moved to ax a decades-old rule that required "pattern day traders" to keep a minimum $25,000 equity in their margin accounts. Scrapping the requirement could encourage small-dollar investors to get even more active in markets.
Write to Hannah Erin Lang at hannaherin.lang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 16, 2026 07:54 ET (11:54 GMT)
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