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By Nupur Anand NEW YORK (Reuters) -JPMorgan Chase announced plans on Monday to hire bankers and invest up to $10 billion in U.S. companies considered critical to national security and economic resilience as part of a broader $1.5 trillion pledge.  The 10-year initiative aims to facilitate, finance and invest in industries central to the growth of the U.S. economy, including defense, energy and manufacturing. Shares of the largest U.S. bank climbed more than 2%. JPMorgan said it will deploy the $10 billion through direct equity and venture capital investments. CEO DIMON: INITIATIVE NOT TRUMP-DRIVEN, '100% COMMERCIAL' U.S. President Donald Trump is looking to modernize infrastructure and reduce dependence on foreign supply chains, particularly in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, clean energy and rare earth minerals.  Monday's announcement also follows criticism from Trump of JPMorgan and its rivals for so-called "debanking" clients for their political or religious beliefs. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, speaking on a conference call during which he was asked several times about the government's involvement, said the investments were not driven by the Trump administration. "This is a JPMorgan initiative," he said, emphasizing that the investments would be "100% commercial" and not philanthropic. Trump revived a trade war with Beijing on Friday, ending an uneasy truce between the world's two largest economies with promises to sharply hike tariffs in a reprisal against China curbing its rare earths exports. "It has become painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing – all of which are essential for our national security," Dimon said in an earlier statement. JPMorgan said its new "security and resiliency initiative" would facilitate financing and investment across four strategic sectors: supply chain and manufacturing; defense and aerospace; energy independence; and frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. The firm said it had already planned to facilitate and finance about $1 trillion over the next decade in support of clients in these industries, according to previously undisclosed internal figures, but it would increase the size by 50%. US PURSUING DEALS INVOLVING DOZENS OF COMPANIES The U.S. government is pursuing deals across up to 30 industries, involving dozens of companies deemed critical to national or economic security, Reuters reported this month. JPMorgan, which helped put together the government's deal with U.S. rare earths mining company MP Materials, said in a recent company podcast that the bank was working with the Trump administration to explore more such opportunities. "We've had no less than 100 calls with clients to talk about the MP transaction as well as what this means for other industries," said Andrew Castaldo, JPMorgan co-head of mid-cap mergers and acquisitions. "And we've had numerous trips down to Washington to explore those opportunities with the government." Dimon also emphasized the need for policy reform to accelerate progress, citing regulatory delays and workforce challenges.  "America needs more speed and investment," he said.  FOUR KEY INVESTMENT AREAS  The four key investment areas identified by the firm have been divided into 27 sub-sectors ranging from shipbuilding and nuclear energy to nanomaterials and secure communications. They will include middle-market companies as well as large corporate clients, it added. The bank plans to establish an external advisory council composed of public- and private-sector leaders, in addition to hiring more bankers and investment professionals. Dimon said he intends to hire a top-notch investment team quickly, without specifying how many bankers he planned to add. It will also expand research on supply chain vulnerabilities and emerging technologies using its recently launched Center for Geopolitics. (Reporting by Nupur Anand in New York; Editing by Jamie Freed, Lananh Nguyen, Mark Porter and Joe Bavier)

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By Sinéad Carew and Dhara Ranasinghe NEW YORK/ LONDON (Reuters) -MSCI's global equities gauge regained some ground on Monday after Friday's steep sell-off as U.S. President Donald Trump softened his tone on the U.S.-China trade war, but safe-haven gold hit fresh record highs in a sign that uncertainty remained high. On Friday Trump had threatened 100% tariffs on China from November 1 in response to China's curbs on exports of rare earth elements. During the weekend, Beijing defended its move as a response to U.S. aggression, but stopped short of imposing new levies on U.S. products. So by Sunday, the U.S. President sounded more conciliatory posting on social media that the U.S. did not want to "hurt" China.  "Friday was a big sell off and today it's a big rally. The Friday sell off was all about Trump threatening 100% tariffs on China. Today Trump is backing away from that," said Tim Ghriskey,  senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. "It was a fear trade on Friday and an elation trade today." On Wall Street at 10:45 a.m. (1445 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 480.23 points, or 1.06%, to 45,960.52, the S&P 500 rose 86.35 points, or 1.31%, to 6,638.49 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 397.43 points, or 1.78%, to 22,599.34.  MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe  rose 7.15 points, or 0.74%, to 979.40. Ghriskey noted that there were still some signs of skepticism in the market as equity indexes have not erased all of Friday's losses and investors were still buying gold. "Gold is the fear trade. Even with Trump backing away from the 100% tariffs on China there is fear out there and gold is traditionally the place to hide," he said. Also, BofA commodities analysts said in a note on Monday that they had raised their forecast for gold to $5,000 an ounce for next year from $4,400.  Spot gold rose 2% to $4,097.57 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 2.89% to $4,090.80 an ounce. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.33% although France remained in the spotlight with reappointed prime minister Sebastien Lecornu facing pressure to get a budget deal across the line. In currencies, the dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.26% to 99.31. The euro was down 0.47% at $1.1563  while against the Japanese yen , the dollar strengthened 0.85% to 152.43. Japanese markets have had their own problems with the ascension of new LDP leader Sanae Takaichi to prime minister now in doubt, contributing to a sharp rebound in the yen and a 5% dive in Nikkei futures on Friday. Japan's Nikkei was closed on Monday for a holiday. For Monday's Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day holiday, U.S. bond markets are closed.  Oil prices rose on Monday after hitting five-month lows on Friday, as investors focused on potential talks between the US and Chinese presidents that could ease a trade war between the world's two largest economies. [O/R] U.S. crude rose 1.77% to $59.92 a barrel and Brent rose to $63.71 per barrel, up 1.56% on the day. In the week ahead, investors will be monitoring the earnings season kick-off with major U.S. banks reporting, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. S&P 500 companies overall are expected to have increased earnings by 8.8% in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to LSEG IBES, and strong results will be needed to justify the market's high valuations. (Reporting by Sinéad Carew in New York, Dhara Ranasinghe in London and Wayne Cole in Sydney; Editing by Ros Russell and Toby Chopra)

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By Saeed Azhar NEW YORK (Reuters) -Goldman Sachs has lost more than a dozen senior investment bankers this year, a higher number than normal, after internal shake-ups and a sluggish start to 2025 drove them to seek new opportunities, according to three sources familiar with the situation. Some bankers left because they expected to be passed over for promotions this year, including to Goldman's elite partner class, while others exited because they expected meager bonuses after dealmaking stalled in the first half, according to two of the sources familiar with the situation who declined to be identified while discussing personnel matters. The scale of departures is being reported by Reuters for the first time. Despite the departures, Goldman still tops Wall Street's league tables for mergers and acquisitions, and its fee volumes have also surged close to levels seen in 2021. Its broader investment banking net revenue in the nine months of the year rose to the highest level since 2021, according to data from Dealogic. The bankers who departed this year joined rivals including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup, while others joined boutiques like Evercore. "We always look to run our firm in service of our clients and shareholders," a bank spokesperson said in a statement. "Goldman Sachs succeeds because of our exceptional teams and strength of our franchise." The bank will announce new partners in 2026. In 2024, it appointed 95 new partners, including 26 women, which became effective earlier this year. It advised Electronic Arts on its $55 billion sale to a consortium of private equity firms and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund this year, and also advised Holcim on the spinoff of its North American business Amrize, now valued at $26 billion. "There have been fewer deals overall, but larger in size, requiring less headcount," said Stephen Biggar, a banking analyst at Argus Research. Megadeals across the industry jumped to $1.26 trillion in global mergers and acquisitions during the third quarter, up 40% year over year, according to Dealogic data. But 8,912 deals were signed, down 16% from last year, the worst third-quarter performance for deal volume in 20 years, according to the data. The surge in investment banking has also boosted Goldman's shares, which are up nearly 38% this year, outperforming the S&P 500 Financials index's 11% rise. LEADERSHIP CHANGES Goldman made major leadership changes this year, introducing co-heads across its major divisions and adding six new members to its management committee. The firm also created a new financing division. The Wall Street giant also pulled forward annual staffing cuts to the second quarter this year from September. The exercise typically targets a headcount reduction of 3% to 5% based on performance. Headcount fell 2% to 45,900 employees in the second quarter versus the first, according to a company filing. "The expectation for the bigger M&A environment has been in place for some time," said Macrae Sykes, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds. "As such, I believe that Goldman Sachs is well prepared to take advantage of the tailwinds given their franchise and broad-based banking capabilities. Headcount may fluctuate, but not, in my opinion, the productiveness of the firm's banking culture." Below is a list of some of the Goldman bankers who have departed this year. They did not respond to requests for comment. Name New Company Role       Gabe Gelman Baker Brothers Head of Capital Advisors Solutions Citigroup Managing Director, David Friedland Co-Head of North America Investment Banking Geddes Johnson FIS Head of Strategy and M&A Bennett Blau Evercore Managing Director, Medtech Todd Eagle Jefferies Managing Director, Head of US Real Estate JPMorgan Managing Director, Brett Miller Co-Head of Software Investment Banking JPMorgan Managing Director, Head Eric Quanbeck of Applied Technology JPMorgan Managing Director, Jonathan Business Services Slaughter Devin Wilde Morgan Stanley Managing Director BDT & MSD Managing Director, Ryan Nolan Partners Global Co-Head of Software Chris DiOrio Wells Fargo Managing Director, Head of Industrials M&A Wells Fargo Managing Director, Head Kieran Ryan of Sponsor M&A (Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Will Dunham and Paul Simao)

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