Morgan Stanley Beats Expectations Thanks to Booming Stock Trading

Morgan Stanley, one of the biggest banks in the United States, just reported strong results for the third quarter (a three-month business period). The star of the show was its stock trading business, which performed far better than experts had predicted.

Let's break down what the bank announced.

The key numbers:

• Earnings per share (profit divided by the number of shares): $3.03 — beating the expected $2.91
• Revenue (total money the company brought in): $20.34 billion — beating the expected $19.95 billion
• Profit climbed 6.5% to $4.91 billion
• Revenue climbed 12% compared to last year

The big winner: equities trading. This is the part of the bank that buys and sells stocks (small ownership pieces of companies) for clients. Its revenue jumped 41% to $5.8 billion — about $909 million more than experts expected. Morgan Stanley said business was strong worldwide, especially in Asia.

But not everything went well. A couple of areas fell short:

• Fixed income trading (buying and selling bonds, which are like loans to governments or companies) fell 7% to $2.01 billion — about $260 million below expectations.
• Investment banking (helping companies raise money or merge with others) rose just 2% to $2.16 billion — about $110 million below expectations. Fewer companies went public (IPOs, when a company first sells shares to the public), which hurt this area.

One analyst called the results "good, but not great," and Morgan Stanley's stock price actually dropped about 3% during the day.

The big picture: CEO Ted Pick said two forces are shaping the economy right now — the exciting growth around AI (artificial intelligence) technology, and the worry caused by global conflicts and tensions. Starting in September, concerns about overseas wars, rising prices, and higher interest rates slowed activity across Wall Street.

Still, Pick said he is "cautiously optimistic" about the final months of the year — hopeful, but aware of the risks.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/14/morgan-stanley-ms-q3-2026-earnings.html