the surprise election of donald trump has been a boon for wall street<u+2019>s trading desks. tom montag, who runs bank of america corp. <u+2019>s global banking and markets units, said tuesday that the bank had clocked its biggest day ever by volume on both the new york stock exchange and japan<u+2019>s nikkei on wed., nov. 9, the day after mr. trump<u+2019>s election . that should help propel the bank<u+2019>s fourth-quarter trading results, which mr. montag said he expects to exceed last year<u+2019>s fourth quarter by double digits. still, he also noted that trading so far in the fourth quarter was <u+201c>not as robust<u+201d> as the third quarter, when banks benefited from investors<u+2019> uncertainty about when the federal reserve might raise interest rates and the lingering effects of the u.k.<u+2019> s brexit vote in late june. bank stocks have rallied since mr. trump<u+2019>s election on twin assumptions: that the new president will fuel economic growth with infrastructure spending , and cut down on regulation . mr. montag, who is also the bank<u+2019>s chief operating officer and the no. 2 official behind ceo brian moynihan, said bank of america was in a good position to take advantage of growth if it happens. shares of bank of america on monday closed up more than 5% to $20.08<u+2014>their highest close since nov. 2008. tuesday morning they gave up some of those gains. mr. montag said that over all, new post-financial-crisis regulations had improved the safety of u.s. banks and given people comfort in the industry<u+2019>s safety. but mr. montag also said it was <u+201c>probably healthy<u+201d> to <u+201c>take a breath<u+201d> and look at whether new regulations made sense or could be improved or made more efficient. <u+201c>now that we have the regulation are there ways to make it better and more efficient and still get the same amount of benefit out of it?<u+201d> mr. montag said. he called <u+201c>pretty interesting<u+201d> rep. jeb hensarling<u+2019>s financial choice act . this is legislation the texas republican, who chairs the house financial services committee, has proposed in what is essentially a replacement for the dodd-frank act. mr. montag said that <u+201c>virtually all<u+201d> of tech spending in his units, banking and markets, is devoted to regulatory compliance, and he indicated that the election was making banks think twice about how to allot that money. as an example, he referred to the volcker rule , which bars banks from taking proprietary bets but which mr. hensarling has opposed. mr. montag said it would be frustrating <u+201c>if you spend another $30 million to be up to speed on volcker but there<u+2019>s a chance they change something in volcker.<u+201d> write to christina rexrode at christina.rexrode@wsj.com
bank of america trading benefits from trump<u+2019>s election surprise  - wsj
christina rexrode