“The market environment became more difficult during the second quarter and, as a result, client activity across our businesses declined,” the chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein told The New York Times. “Looking ahead, we remain focused on helping our clients to raise capital, manage risk and invest for the future, which are all important to economic growth.”
The earnings included $1.15 billion in government fines with $550 million for the S.E.C. settlement and $600 million for a British bank payroll tax – Goldman did not admit wrongdoing in the S.E.C. settlement case.
The company has set aside 43 percent of revenue in the first half of 2010 for employee salaries and bonuses, down 49 percent from a year ago.
“It’s rare for them to miss, but it does happen,” Guy Moszhowski told The New York Times, who is an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “It was a very, very bad operating environment. The trading results were much weaker but still respectable.”
