With its shares trading close to all-time highs at $173, there is a lot riding on this week’s fourth-quarter earnings update from JPMorgan Chase (JPM:NYSE).

Over the past year, the Jamie Dimon-led bank has seen profits lifted by the acquisition of First Republic and by an influx of customers who have flocked to the larger established banks following the crisis in small regional lenders.

On top of its strong retail business, earnings are likely to have buoyed an upsurge in M&A deals towards the end of the year.

In December alone, pharmaceutical companies Abbvie (ABBV:NYSE), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY:NYSE) and AstraZeneca (AZN) announced around $25 billion worth of deals according to LSEG data.

Analysts are predicting earnings per share of $3.64, a decline from the previous quarter’s $4.33 per share but a minor improvement on the $3.57 per share posted in the fourth quarter of 2022 suggesting a fairly low bar for the bank to beat.

Which, having beaten forecasts in each of the last four quarters by between 11% and 20%, it needs to do so again if it doesn’t want to disappoint investors. 

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