Jefferies Profit Drops on Pullback in Deals, Capital Markets (1)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s fiscal first-quarter earnings declined amid a drop in investment-banking and capital-markets revenue, with activity hurt by uncertainty around US policy and geopolitics.

Total revenue slipped 8.4% to $1.59 billion in the three months through February, the New York-based firm said in a statement Wednesday. The results mark a reversal from a year ago, when momentum in trading and deals was starting to build.

Asset-management revenue fell 30% to $191.7 million, Jefferies said, pointing to a difficult environment for a variety of investment strategies, including long equity bias. That dragged on Jefferies’ first-quarter earnings, which totaled ...