What's going on?

UBS reported results on Tuesday for the first time since its rushed takeover of Credit Suisse.

What does this mean?

UBS�s stock price has been sitting pretty ever since the firm bought Credit Suisse, in what was either a forced buyout or the deal of the century. So it was a shock when the mammoth investment bank revealed that its first-quarter profit was down 52% from the same time last year, even if that was partly down to the $665 million it put aside to cover a drawn-out legal battle. On the plus side, clients popped $28 billion into UBS�s wealth management division. Mind you, Credit Suisse reported on Monday that it lost $69 billion during its embattled first quarter � and when you add those together, the future Swiss megabank is still bleeding cash.

Why should I care?

For markets: Not-so-low-hanging fruit.
Squishing two supersized firms together is hard in any industry, but UBS has an extra tricky task on its hands with Credit Suisse. Just do the math: banks hire a lot of workers, and mergers mean job losses. Those layoffs can really crush morale among the remaining number crunchers, and loyal cash-rich clients often follow their departing bankers or take their business elsewhere out of principle.�

Zooming out: Timing�s everything.
The old adage of �time in the market�s better than timing the market� is sound advice most of the time � but the saying doesn�t always ring true for bank stocks. Take UBS: today�s share price is the same as it was in 2018, 2015, 2013, and 2008, but the stock bounced between 10 and 20 Swiss Francs a number of times in between. So without a knack for timing, bank stocks could leave you feeling pretty flat.