BlackRock closed the third quarter with $15.49 trillion of assets under management, a record, after clients added $205 billion. The firm reported on 14 October, the same morning as the hot September CPI print we previewed on 12 October. Adjusted diluted earnings were $15.93 a share, up 38% from a year earlier and above the $14.13 Wall Street had expected, according to LSEG figures cited by Reuters. GAAP diluted earnings were $10.57. The gap is a non-cash change in the fair value of contingent consideration from earlier acquisitions, which BlackRock strips out of the adjusted number. Revenue rose 19% to $7.75 billion. Assets were $13.46 trillion a year earlier and $15.34 trillion in the second quarter.
iShares took $135 billion, including $8 billion in digital assets
The earnings release put long-term net inflows at $175 billion and total net inflows, including cash, at $205 billion. iShares ETFs were $135 billion of that. Inside the ETF table, digital-asset products took $8 billion in the quarter and $6 billion for the year to date, which means earlier quarters were a net drain before this one turned positive. Fixed income ETFs took $61 billion. Active net inflows were $66 billion. Over the last twelve months, net inflows were $869 billion. Chief executive Larry Fink said clients are using the firm across investing, financing and technology, and he pointed to an AI infrastructure partnership that made its first deployment in the quarter. Technology services and subscription revenue rose 14%. The firm bought back $550 million of stock.
The same week, bitcoin ETFs were losing money
The quarterly digital-asset inflow does not describe October. After the quarter closed, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs swung to redemptions. Friday 16 October alone was an $82.4 million outflow, mostly BlackRock's IBIT, and October's net for those funds is about $615 million out. That later tape is in bitcoin holds above $81,000. The bank reports that opened the same week were mixed. JPMorgan's third-quarter profit was $15.3 billion, or $5.57 a share, short of the $5.93 analysts had expected, AP reported. The macro backdrop is the 3.7% CPI print and the softer hike odds after Kevin Warsh spoke in Bangkok, covered in the economy note.