J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. reported Thursday that its third quarter earnings fell 4 percent due to mortgage credit losses and weaknesses in investment banking but still beat estimates.

The second largest bank in the U.S. said in its quarterly earnings report that it earned 4.26 billion dollars, or 1.02 dollars a share in the third quarter, down 4 percent from the same period last year. The result surpassed previous estimates of 96 cents a share.

"All things considered, we believe the firm's returns were reasonable given the current environment," Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan said in a statement.

J.P. Morgan' s third quarter revenue was still weak, falling to 24.4 billion dollars, an 11 percent decline from the second quarter. The investment banking unit' s results was weighed heavily by the recent market turmoil. Profit fell to 1.6 billion dollars, or 20 percent from the second quarter.

The bank' s mortgage division continued to suffer with a 900 million dollar loss in this quarter. Dimon expected the mortgage credit loss to remain elevated.

J.P. Morgan' s shares were down 24 percent for the year. The bank had repurchased 4.4 billion dollars stocks during the quarter, in an effort to support the stock price.