The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that Royal Bank of Canada leaned on its retail-banking and wealth-management divisions to boost third-quarter profit and overcome a weak spell in capital markets, setting a cautiously optimistic tone as earnings season for Canada's big banks begins. The Globe's James Bradshaw writes that Canada's largest bank by assets is the first major lender to report fiscal third-quarter results, and its performance was mixed. The Globe says that although profit increased 5 per cent to $3.26-billion and RBC raised its quarterly dividend, earnings per share fell short of expectations. That was largely due to a difficult quarter for divisions that live and die by financial markets, as less active clients left banks competing for a diminished pool of fees. Banks have been operating under a cloud of economic uncertainty, as trade tensions and slowing global growth have put pressure on central banks to cut interest rates. RBC's expected loan losses of $425-million increased 23 per cent from unusually low levels a year earlier, but that was a modest rise from the second quarter and less than analysts had expected. RBC made no notable changes to its economic forecasts.