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Brokerage puts talk about its imminent collapse to rest after reporting better-than-expected results. Shares surge 12% in pre-market trading.
Last Updated: March 18, 2008: 9:09 AM EDT

Traders breathe sigh of relief

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Lehman Brothers reported lower earnings Tuesday that topped forecasts, despite taking $1.8 billion in writedowns across its mortgage and loan portfolio.

The brokerage, which has been under siege in recent days because of concerns about its balance sheet, said it maintained a "strong liquidity position."

Lehman (LEH, Fortune 500) stock jumped more than 12% in pre-market trading on the results.

Net income at the bank fell 57% to $489 million, or 81 cents a share, during the first quarter ended Feb. 29. The firm reported profit of $1.15 billion, or $1.96 a share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue fell 31% to $3.5 billion from $5.05 billion last year.

Lehman was expected to post a decline in profit to 72 cents a share on revenue of $3.35 billion, according to earnings tracker Thomson Financial.

"In what remains a challenging operating environment, our results reflect the value of our continued commitment to building a diversified platform and our focus on managing risk and maintaining a strong capital and liquidity position," Lehman's Chairman and CEO Richard S. Fuld, Jr. said in a statement.

Shares of the New York-based brokerage plummeted Monday amid fears the company faces woes similar to those of Bear Stearns (BSC, Fortune 500), which dramatically collapsed last week after suffering a liquidity crunch.

Lehman sought to put those worries to rest on Tuesday. It pointed out that its holding company had a liquidity pool of $34 billion and $64 billion in assets, in addition to $99 billion at its regulated entities.

The company also said it marked down $1.8 billion across its leveraged loan and mortgage portfolio during the quarter, with the lion's share of the reduction coming from its residential and commercial real estate businesses.

Lehman's better-than-expected results come amid a credit crisis which has dried up merger and initial public offering activity, eliminating a key source of lucrative fees for the investment bank.

Lehman and rival Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), which posted earnings well above Wall Street forecasts earlier Tuesday, were expected to report weakened results and sizeable writedowns this quarter.

Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) is set to deliver its quarterly results Thursday.

Lehman Brothers (LEH) may be in for a long day. Shares of the brokerage firm slid 15% in early trading after the firm said it’s got enough cash to keep doing business. The firm made the statement after a big Asian bank asked traders not to do new transactions with Lehman, The Wall Street Journal reports. That decision raises the possibility that Lehman will face a run like the one that brought down Bear Stearns (BSC) this weekend. Bear sold itself to JPMorgan Chase (JPM) for $2 a share, narrowly averting a bankruptcy filing.

Next to Bear Stears, Lehman is the smallest and least diversified brokerage firm on Wall Street, so there are worries that it will be the next firm to come under attack as firms that trade with Lehman pull back in a bid to protect themselves. Those concerns were intensified when UBS downgraded Lehman stock to neutral from buy on Monday, and analysts at ING speculated that Lehman may not play a big enough role in the markets to justify a Fed-backed bailout like the one at Bear Stearns. On the bright side, Moody’s reaffirmed its ratings on Lehman Monday - so maybe the firm can weather the storm.