The Bank of America reported profits but at the same time fell to second place among U.S. banks Tuesday, with JPMorgan Chase now the largest by assets.

Bank of America posted a third-quarter profit of $5.9 billion, which was a major improvement over a multi-billion dollar loss for the same period a year earlier.

The privately-owned Bank of America's gains were due in part to the sale of assets.

Also Tuesday, investment bank Goldman Sachs reported a third quarter loss of $393 million as revenue from its investments fell while markets were in turmoil.

Goldman posted a profit in the same quarter a year ago.

U.S. banks have been hurt by the sluggish economy that is cutting demand for loans, and reducing revenue for lenders.

On Monday, Wells Fargo Bank's stock declined after falling revenue discouraged some investors. While lower revenue hurt the firm, it benefited from lower losses on bad loans and managed to post a record quarterly profit of more than $4 billion. Lower loan losses also helped rival Citigroup increase earnings to $3.8 billion for the same period.