Green shoots of recovery are being seen in the banking sector after Goldman Sachs posted a $1.8 billion (£1.2) profit for the first quarter.
Goldman Sachs previously recorded its first quarterly loss since going public in 1999 in the final three months of 2008.
The United States bank also said $5 billion (£3.4 billion) of its stock would be placed on the market in order to raise funds to pay off $10 billion worth of government debt ahead of schedule.
Goldman Sachs aims to be the first US bank to rid itself of this debt, which comes with strings attached, such as limits on executive pay.
Commenting, David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index, said it appeared the banking sector was "over the worst of it".
But he added that although the banking crisis was "out of the way", many other firms were still under pressure.
"So I would still be cautious when investing in stocks as the recession could still last for a while yet," Mr Jones said.
Digg 
Delicious 
Reddit 
StumbleUpon 
Google 
Technorati 
Netvouz