Despite Legal Headwinds, Barclays Reports Strong Earnings

Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS) (LON:BARC) reported strong earnings on Thursday that were tempered by a yet another GBP500 million ($800 million USD) legal reserve set aside related to investigations into alleged manipulation of the foreign exchange market.

Barclays beats expectations by 15%

The bank recorded a pretax profit of  GBP1.59 billion ($2.5 billion USD), up 15 percent and higher than expected. Lower than anticipated restructuring costs were cited as a reason for the upside profit surprise.

"This is a good performance from the group, our strategy is working, and we expect to see continued progress as we go forward," Chief Executive Antony Jenkins...