Wall Street Roundup: Chasing JPMorgan. The economic drag of banks.

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Gold: Trading now at $1,458 per ounce, up 0.3% from Tuesday. Dow Jones industrial average: Trading now at 12,308.90, up 0.4% from Tuesday.

Chasing JPMorgan. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the first big bank to report its first-quarter results, showed strong earnings, sending stocks up.

Hard being No. 2. Morgan Stanley, the perpetual little brother to Goldman Sachs on Wall Street, is continuing to have trouble finding a growth strategy and shareholders are growing impatient with the firm’s CEO.

The economic drag of banks. Bankers have defended their importance to the U.S. economy, but could they actually be weakening the country’s entrepeneurial strength? That’s what a new study suggests.

--Nathaniel Popper