Goldman Sachs Group Inc. stock outperforms the market on a strong trading day

Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS, +1.99% advanced 1.99% to $364.48 Wednesday, on what proved to be an all-around great trading session for the stock market, with the S&P 500 Index SPX, +1.28% rising 1.28% to 3,969.61 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.80% rising 0.80% to 33,973.01. This was the stock’s fourth consecutive day of gains. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. closed $39.64 short of its 52-week high ($404.12), which the company reached on January 12th.

Staff at Goldman Sachs are bracing for news on whether they will keep their jobs, as the United States investment bank begins a sweeping cost-cutting drive that could see its 49,000-strong global workforce shrink by thousands.

The long-anticipated jobs cull at the Wall Street titan, expected to represent the biggest contraction in headcount since the financial crisis, is likely to affect most of the bank’s major divisions, with its under-fire investment banking arm facing the deepest cuts, a source told the Reuters news agency this month.

The cuts began in Asia on Wednesday, where Goldman completed cutting back its private wealth management unit and let go of 11 private bank staff in its Hong Kong and Singapore offices, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

About eight staff were also laid off in Goldman’s research department in Hong Kong, the source added, with layoffs ongoing in the investment bank and other divisions.