Financial Firms’ Q3 Earnings Seen Nearly Flat, at Best

"Banks had to deal with a tough operating environment over the summer, with modest gains in the core loan portfolios offsetting the mixed capital market business, soft advisory activity levels, and the seemingly neverending low interest backdrop," said Sheraz Mian, research director of Zacks, in a recent quarterly earnings outlook.

"Adjusting for easy comparisons at Bank of America, overall profitability for the group is expected to be essentially flat from the same period last year, with revenues constrained by continued net-interest margin pressures and cost cuts as the major tool for earnings growth," Mian explained.

BofA's year-ago results included a payment of nearly $16.7 billion to the Justice Department tied to mortgage-backed securities. It also is benefitting from cost cutting, analysts say.

Total earnings for the financial sector, he adds, should be up 6.5%, though sales should weaken 4.2% year over year. Excluding BofA, the sector's Q3 earnings would be up just 0.1%.

But not all experts think results will prove rosy. Dick Bove, vice president of equity research at Rafferty Capital Markets, said recently on CNBC: "The problem the big banks have is that they have big capital markets businesses. They do trading, investment banking, investment management, and none of those businesses did well in the third quarter."

The S&P Financials Index is off nearly 6% so far this year vs. a drop of about 2% overall in the S&P 500.

— Check out 12 Best & Worst Broker-Dealers: Q2 Earnings, 2015 on ThinkAdvisor.