JPMorgan Chase & Co posted an increase in first-quarter earnings, as it set aside less money to cover bad loans.

COMMENTARY

MATT MCCORMICK, PORTFOLIO MANAGER AT CINCINNATI-BASED BAHL & GAYNOR INVESTMENT COUNSEL

Nice beat on both the earnings and the revenue side, they even managed to match the whisper number of $1.28. But the market's reaction to the release is that the bar was set pretty high. JPMorgan Chase results, though strong, were not enough to satisfy the hungry beast.

I can almost hear Jamie Dimon saying, 'What more do I have to do?' JPMorgan is kind of viewed as the bellwether of the industry, Jamie Dimon is the fair-haired boy, one of the clear stars of the banking industry ... I think the expectations were fairly high, they were expecting him to come in with a big, big number and it wasn't enough. ... I would have thought it would have been better received.

ADRIAN CRONJE, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AT ATLANTA-BASED BALENTINE, A WEALTH MANAGEMENT FIRM MANAGING $600 MILLION IN ASSETS.

The numbers are not too surprising and a little disappointing. The key is loan growth, and for a deleveraging economy it's important that bellwether banks like JPMorgan begin to show signs credit is expanding to the private sector. That's what will ultimately turn this recovery into a durable expansion, but it seems like that's not yet happening.

(Reporting by Maria Aspan and Joe Rauch, compiled by Tiffany Wu)

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