jefferies financial group inc reported lower quarterly profit and a 30 drop in revenue citing a challenging trading environment firstquarter profit fell to 3274 million from 5824 million a year earlier on a pershare basis profit was 123 company officials said the investment banking backlog remained strong but noted that our realization of this backlog is sensitive to market conditions chief executive richard handler and president brian friedman in a statement pointed to a shift in december and january anticipating a change in fed policy exacerbated by market volatility tied to russias invasion of ukraine jefferies said it has no operations in russia and that exposure to that russia is otherwise immaterial