The Q1 earning season is beginning to gather steam and all eyes are fixed on daily beats and misses of the Wall Street biggies. The general mood is that of pessimism, which has compounded by sharply falling first-quarter estimates over the last three months. Total earnings for the quarter are expected to be down -11.1% on -2.3% lower revenues. Earnings growth is projected to be negative for 11 of the 16 Zacks sectors, including Finance, one of the largest in the index.Finance had a bad start to this year thanks to the Chinese economic slowdown, continued volatility in commodity prices and the prevailing low and sometimes even a negative interest rate scenario. However, the largest player in the block JPMorgan Chase & Co. JP lifted investors’ spirits with stable numbers and instilled confidence in the other major stocks like The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. GS, Wells Fargo & Company WFC and Bank of America Corporation BAC. Let’s have a look at how the first-quarter performance of these three major companies might turn out.Wall Street giant Citigroup Inc. C will report first-quarter 2016 results on Friday, Apr 15, 2016. The company has an Earnings ESP of 0.96% and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Last month, Citigroup’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), John Gerspach, hinted at lower trading revenues for the quarter at a conference in New York. The CFO had stated that trading revenue for the first quarter will likely drop 15% year over year, affected by elevated volatility. On the other hand, the company might show slight improvement in net interest margin (NIM) to reflect the full-quarter impact of the interest rates hike by the Federal Reserve last December. (Read more: Will Lower Trading Revenue Drag Citi's (C) Q1 Earnings?)Regions Financial Corporation RF is scheduled to report first-quarter 2016 results before the opening bell on Friday, Apr 15. The company has an Earnings ESP of -5.26% and a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). This banking giant experienced a number of headwinds during the quarter including heightened market volatility, decline in commodity prices, weak emerging markets, restricted business and consumer spending, rate hike uncertainty and tumbling energy prices.On the positive side, Regions was prudent in controlling costs, which could act as a tailwind for the quarter’s results. Further, the company targets a $300 million expense reduction by 2018. Of this, the company expects 35–45% to be saved in 2016 itself. (Read more: Will Regions (RF) Q1 Earnings Miss on Revenue Headwinds?)The Charles Schwab Corporation SCHW, which is scheduled to report first-quarter 2016 results on Apr 15, has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and a Zacks Rank #3. This San Francisco-based investment broker is expected to come up with weak capital market revenues and a decline in investment banking revenues. Equities revenues as well as fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) revenues are also projected to fall.However Schwab has emerged as a big player in the investment market with a wide variety of investing services and an online trading system. Also, the company has a diversified lineup of exchange-traded funds. This we feel will help the company to stand its ground at a time when global issues are troubling the brokerage industry. (Read more: Will Volatile Markets Drive Q1 Earnings for Schwab (SCHW)?) Visit us again! Check later on our full write-up on earnings releases of these stocks.Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report WELLS FARGO-NEW (WFC): Free Stock Analysis Report CITIGROUP INC (C): Free Stock Analysis Report BANK OF AMER CP (BAC): Free Stock Analysis Report REGIONS FINL CP (RF): Free Stock Analysis Report SCHWAB(CHAS) (SCHW): Free Stock Analysis Report GOLDMAN SACHS (GS): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research