Among the S&P 500’s eleven sectors, Financials are expected to report the highest year-over-year earnings growth at nearly 40 percent, according to FactSet. Banks make up so much of that gain that if they were excluded from the sector, that figure would fall to 11 percent.

With major U.S. lenders and investment banks’ earnings now turned in, one message from the wave of financial results is clear: Times are swell for bankers and traders. Big firms’ investment banking businesses and trading desks are humming.

Bank of America on Thursday announced profits more than doubled in the fourth quarter, surging to $6.7 billion from $3.1 billion in the same period last year - another in a wave of favorable reports from the nation's biggest banks.