KeyCorp ( KEY - Free Report ) is scheduled to announce first-quarter 2024 results on Apr 18, before the opening bell. During the quarter, lending activities witnessed modest improvement. Per the Federal Reserve's latest data, the demand for commercial and industrial loans (accounting for almost 50% of KeyCorp's average loan balances) was subdued in the first quarter. On the other hand, demand for consumer loans (constituting roughly 30% of average loan balances) was decent. In the to-be-reported quarter, we expect KeyCorp's average loan balance to be $110.8 billion, down 7.5% from the prior-year quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for KEY's average earning assets is pegged at $169.9 billion, indicating a 2.7% decline from the prior-year quarter's reported number. Our estimate for the metric stands at $173.3 billion, suggesting an almost 1% fall. Further, the Federal Reserve kept the interest rates unchanged in the quarter at a 22-year high of 5.25-5.5%.