‘Stay tuned’ for better returns, says Morgan Stanley

Bloomberg

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman sounded a positive note about the Wall Street bank’s business, telling investors to “stay tuned” for better performance as markets recover.
Speaking to Bloomberg Television in Beijing, where the firm is hosting its China summit, Gorman said a 6 percent return on equity in the first quarter was in “a very challenging environment” and he sees “a lot of upside.”
“As these markets start to rebound to a more normal environment, which is what we’re seeing now relative to early February, Morgan Stanley will obviously do better,” he said. Shaken at the start of the year by a slump in trading revenue, big US investment banks are trimming jobs and cutting costs. However, Morgan Stanley’s profit exceeded analysts’ estimates for the first quarter.

, it fell 53 percent from a year earlier to $1.13 billion.
“Three years ago, in that kind of environment, Morgan Stanley would have lost a billion dollars, so the model works,” Gorman said. “Maybe I was on my own on this, but I felt pretty good about the first quarter.”