Wall Street businesses boosted the earnings of big banks in the second quarter.

Investment-banking and trading revenue rose at major U.S. banks including Goldman Sachs () and JPMorgan Chase (). More stable economic conditions gave corporate-banking clients the confidence to use bread-and-butter banking services such as deal advisory and debt offerings.

Conditions remain fragile, though. An unexpected turn in the economy or geopolitical upheaval could halt progress. And the picture is more complex for big banks with large consumer-lending businesses, such as Bank of America () and Wells Fargo (), as higher interest rates and inflation hurt lower-income customers.

Here are the main takeaways from big banks’ earnings reports.

Investment banking is rebounding

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley (), Citigroup () and Wells Fargo all posted double-digit increases in investment-banking revenue.

A clearer outlook on interest rates is giving bankers hope that dealmaking is emerging from a two-year slowdown. Goldman Chief Executive David Solomon said the bank is seeing “the early innings of a capital markets and M&A recovery.”

Global mergers-and-acquisitions volumes, while up about 8% in the second quarter from a year earlier, are still below those of the deal boom coming out of the pandemic.

M&A activity is unlikely to kick into full gear until interest rates come down, bringing the private-equity firms that typically power dealmaking back into the fold. Bankers including Solomon say they are seeing signs this year of their re-emergence.

Equity-underwriting volumes are up but are still way off their peaks. On Friday, ticketing-platform StubHub delayed its plans to go public for several months because of a choppy market for initial public offerings, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Stock market highs help asset and wealth management

Many banks also got a lift from their asset-and-wealth-management businesses thanks in large part to the stock market, which has set repeated highs. These businesses handle investment funds and oversee accounts for institutions and wealthy individuals. Goldman reported a 27% revenue jump from a year ago in its asset-and-wealth-management business. Bank of America, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo each posted 6% increases.

Revenue in Morgan Stanley’s wealth-management business increased just 2% from a year ago and showed signs of weakness, including a 17% decline in net interest income.

Wall Street-heavy banks such as Goldman and Morgan Stanley are increasingly relying on these types of businesses to generate steady fee revenue to offset lulls in dealmaking and trading. They can also provide an extra boost even when those businesses do well, as they did for Goldman in particular in the second quarter.

Lower-income consumers are under pressure

Consumers have continued to spend and borrow, helped by a strong job market and wage gains. But higher inflation and interest rates have increasingly pressured budgets, especially for lower-income households, some of the largest commercial banks said.

At JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citi, there were signs that more borrowers carried credit-card balances over from month to month in the second quarter. More also fell behind on payments. JPMorgan and Bank of America stashed away funds for potential consumer-loan losses.

There has been particular pressure on the consumers who are already on shaky financial ground. JPMorgan said some lower-income consumers have shifted spending toward nondiscretionary products. Citi said consumers with lower credit scores had seen sharper declines in payment rates and borrowed more.

Bank of America said Tuesday that loan losses on credit cards flattened out during the period from earlier this year and should continue improving. The banks said the figures reflected a return to normal after years of low credit-card balances and delinquency rates.

The big picture, JPMorgan Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said, “is still consistent with quite a healthy consumer.”