Jefferies’ big Q4 a good sign for Street

Spirits on Wall Street soared even higher on Tuesday after a bellwether bank roared back to health.

Jefferies Group more than quadrupled its profit during its most recent quarter — a sign that trading and investing profits are back in fashion in the financial sector after a long, rocky stretch.

The investment bank, which is owned by holding company Leucadia National, brought in $87.2 million in profit in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Nov. 30 — up from almost $20 million during the same time last year, the company said.

Profits were boosted by a nearly 16fold increase in revenue from bond trading,

“We are pleased with our fourth quarter results, which reflect a strong performance in investment banking, a solid performance from our core equities business, and a continuing signifi- cant improvement in our fixed income results,” Jefferies Chief Executive Richard Handler said in a statement.

The results come just nine months after Handler’s bank posted devastating losses for the period ended Feb. 29. The bank’s bottom line had swung to a $166.8 million loss in that period as stock trading volume fell 99 percent.

The positive results are good news for Wall Street banks, which suffered in 2016 from months of poor trading and investment-banking volume but have been flying high since the Nov. 8 election.

Markets are already betting that Goldman Sachs will post gangbusters earnings when it reports next month.

Shares of Goldman, which will have three former executives in the Trump administration, are up 34 percent since the election. It is one of the most sensitive banks to slowdowns in trading because it derives much of its revenue from bond trading.