Investment banks look set to announce a lukewarm third quarter when they report earnings starting this week, as analysts said a few bright spots in trading were swamped by the summer slowdown in advisory work, which was more dramatic this year than in the past.

George Kuznetsov, the head of research at Coalition, said that equity performance is set to dominate the third quarter. He also said that foreign exchange markets and commodities are on track to perform well, but that fixed income trading is set to fall behind the curve.