Can Goldman Stock Traders Deliver a Third Record Quarter?

Mix up almost any macro cocktail you want, and the equities desks at Wall Street’s big banks will tell you it went down as smooth as an Aperol Spritz.

Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that the equities trading desk at Goldman Sachs is on pace to generate over $5 billion in revenue in the second quarter, and could even set a record for the third quarter in a row by besting last quarter’s $5.3 billion haul. 

Turmoil and Tailwinds

Last year, stock traders surfed high volumes (from volatility caused by the Trump administration’s tariffs) to record revenues. In the first quarter of this year, they raked in higher profits as trading volumes swelled amid the Iran war.

The latest tailwind has been the trading boom in Asia, according to Bloomberg. That tracks with the bull market runs in South Korea, where the Kospi Composite Index is up 94% in 2026, and Japan, where the Nikkei 225 is up 38%. As well, the Mega Taiwan Blue Chip 30 ETF, which tracks the island country’s leading firms, is up 88%. Investors have been quick to capitalize on companies benefiting from the artificial intelligence boom, like Korean memory giants Samsung and SK Hynix, or Taiwan Semiconductor, that trade at a discount relative to major US firms. “Eighty percent of Taiwan’s market is tech-oriented, in some way touching AI,” Tim Moe, the chief Asia Pacific equity strategist and co-head of macro research in Asia at Goldman Sachs Research, said during a podcast last month. “For Korea, that number is about 50% to 60% of the index. Japan is a little bit lower, maybe 30%.” Goldman’s equities desk will walk away from the quarter having made a mint off the trend, which suffered a slight dent Tuesday:

• Earlier this month, Moe’s team lifted its 12-month target for the Kospi to 12,000, implying a 45% upside from its 8,200 close yesterday. But speaking of yesterday, the Kospi suffered what the daily newspaper Chosun Ilbo dubbed a “Black Tuesday,” with the index cratering 10% as Samsung and SK Hynix each fell more than 12% (it rose 3.3% on Wednesday, in a testament to the benchmark’s tech-fueled volatility).
• Yesterday’s drop was fueled by concerns about the US Federal Reserve raising interest rates and a warning from South Korean regulators to retail investors against borrowing to buy into the market. Foreign investors dumped roughly $2.6 billion worth of Kospi shares.

Posting Proud: The equities desk isn’t the only unit at 200 West Street with bragging rights. Last week, Goldman said on LinkedIn — because where better to boast than between reminders to play Queens and Pinpoint — that it has advised on $1 trillion in mergers and acquisitions as of June 15, a record half-year pace for any investment bank. Being the lead underwriter on SpaceX’s megacap IPO didn’t hurt, nor did Goldman’s role as a financial advisor on the $67 billion Dominion Energy-NextEra Energy deal.