Investing.com - JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) posted better-than-expected first-quarter revenue on Tuesday, bolstered by recent market volatility that spurred on its equity-market trading business.

Along with the energy shock sparked by the war in Iran, investors have been grappling with ructions in stock markets caused by worries over disruptions from new artificial intelligence-powered tools. Trading desks at big banks like JPMorgan tend to benefit from increased movements in equities, as this can force clients to reposition portfolios and make more trades to hedge risks.

Markets revenue at JPMorgan, the largest U.S. lender by assets, gained 20% in the three months ended on March 31, mirroring similar returns from rivals like Goldman Sachs.

Despite the volatile market backdrop, banking executives have also described a persistently strong environment for dealmaking. Hopes are high that 2026 will be a year marked by massive transactions, particularly in the possible public listings of prominent AI and space firms.

During the quarter, JPMorgan was the bookrunner for ecommerce titan Amazon’s $37 billion bond issuing and a lead adviser to AES on a $33.4 billion take-private deal. Advisory fees jumped by 28%, the highest among Wall Street banks for the period, according to Dealogic data cited by Reuters.

Group-wide, adjusted revenue stood at $50.54 billion, topping Bloomberg consensus expectations of $49.26 billion. Net income grew to $16.5 billion, or $5.94 a share, versus $14.6 billion, or $5.07 apiece, a year ago.

Still, CEO Jamie Dimon flagged an "increasingly complex set of risks" around the wider economic outlook, including geopolitical tensions and wars, energy price fluctuations, murky global trade policies, large fiscal deficits and elevated asset prices.

"While we cannot predict how these risks and uncertainties will ultimately play out, they are significant and they reinforce why we prepare the Firm for a wide range of environments," Dimon said.

Shares of JPMorgan were lower in premarket U.S. trading.