Goldman Sachs Group (GS) shares moved higher in pre-market trading amid reports that the investment bank is set to begin a steep round of job cuts later this week.
Multiple media reports suggest Goldman is likely to eliminate around 3,200 positions, the bulk of them centered around its trading and banking divisions, following a traditional end-of-year review lead by CEO David Solomon.
Solomon told employees in late December in a company-wide memo that a "variety of factors impacting the business landscape, including tightening monetary conditions that are slowing down economic activity" are weighing on the bank's prospects and warned that a "headcount reduction will take place in the first half of January".
Goldman unveiled plans to restructure is business reporting into three separate divisions -- down from four -- following its third quarter earnings in October. The new units will include asset and wealth management, global banking and markets and platform solutions.
Goldman shares were marked 2% higher in late morning trading Monday to change hands at $355.14 each, extending the stock's six-month gain to around 21.3%.
Goldman is expected to publish its fourth quarter earnings on January 17, with investors looking for a bottom line of $5.65 per share on revenues of $10.92 billion and net interest income of around $2.06 billion.
Merger activity, however, fell around 40% last year from record 2021 levels, according to Refinitiv data, with a 56% contraction over the fourth quarter. That will eat into investment banking fees, which were already down 57% from the pervious year -- at $1.58 billion -- when Goldman reported third quarter earnings in October.
Bloomberg reported over the weekend the Goldman is set to unveil a $2 billion loss in its newly-defined platform solutions business, which houses its global fintech business.
