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Morgan Stanley’s quarterly profits shot higher at the end of last year, as it joined the other Wall Street banks in benefiting from a recovery in investment banking and vibrant stock trading around Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.
But its closely watched wealth management business, which has $6.2tn in client assets, missed analyst expectations for net new assets, attracting inflows of $56.5bn, up from $47.5bn one year ago. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected $62bn.
Morgan Stanley reported fourth-quarter net income of $3.7bn, up from $1.5bn one year ago. Revenues were $16.2bn sharply higher year on year from $12.9bn.
Revenues at Morgan Stanley’s equities trading business rose 51 per cent to $3.3bn, while fixed income trading was up 35 per cent at $1.9bn. Rival Goldman Sachs had reported record net revenues in equity trading for the year including $6.2bn for the quarter.
Morgan’s investment banking revenues rose 25 per cent to $1.6bn.
