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Morgan Stanley

5/18/2013, 6:58 PM ET

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Thursday, May 16, 3:55 PM Described as a win for Wall Street's biggest swaps dealers - JPM, BAC, C, MS, and GS - the CFTC approves new swap trading rules 3 years after the passage of Dodd-Frank. The rules mandate new trading platforms making bids and offers public, but require traders send request for bids to just two firms before execution rather than the five some had called for. Smaller exchanges aren't sweating it, instead happy they now have a defined system to operate under. 1 Comment [Financials]
Wednesday, May 15, 6:03 PM Third Point discloses new positions in: Anadarko Petroleum (APC), BE Aerospace (BEAV), Cabot Oil (COG), Chimera Investment (CIM), Hess (HES), Hilshire Brands (HSH), Tiffany (TIF), Thermo Fisher (TMO), and Virgin Media (MMED). It raises stakes in: AbbVie (ABBV) and International Paper (IP), and exits Abbott Labs (ABT), Capital One (COF), Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), Herbalife (HLF), Illumina (ILMN), MetLife (MET), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Tesoro (TSO). (13-F) 4 Comments
Wednesday, May 15, 3:01 PM Commodity trading revenue at the top 10 global investment banks plunged 54% Y/Y to just $1.2B, according to Coalition. The outliers are Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan (JPM), both of which reported slight increases in activity (Q2 looking decent at JPM as well). Leading on the downside was a 77% drop at Morgan Stanley (MS), whose commodity desk has been alternatively on the block or set for restructuring. 1 Comment [Financials]
Wednesday, May 15, 7:09 AM Morgan Stanley's (MS) price target is lifted to $36 from $30 by Mike Mayo following yesterday's annual meeting in which Mayo was able to draw from Jamie Gorman his hope for a return to 10% ROE by 2014 Q1. "The new explicit time frame for consolidated ROE allows investors to keep the pressure on," writes Mayo, noting other board members "are on the same page" about ROE's importance. Comment! [Financials]
Tuesday, May 14, 3:06 PM Morgan Stanley's (MS +2.4%) annual meeting turns into the Mayo and Gorman show as the CLSA analyst is now a shareholder and able to attend. Mayo was able to pin Gorman down to 2014 Q1 as the time for reaching his goal of 10% ROE. Gorman made clear, however, the company is dependent on the Fed allowing buybacks if it wants to hit that target. Comment! [Financials]
Tuesday, May 14, 11:52 AM Morgan Stanley (MS +3%) shareholders throw their support (86%) behind the bank's executive compensation plan which cut CEO Gorman's pay by 7% and deferred bonuses for top managers. Total shareholder return was 28% in 2012, 800 bps below the average of Morgan's 9 largest peers, and Gorman's $9.75M in pay was 40% lower than it could have been. Comment! [Financials]
Monday, May 13, 11:53 AM Morgan Stanley Wealth Management (MS) rolls out Trade Flow Insights, an in-house social network allowing its advisors to see what their colleagues are buying and selling along with filtering ability to see things like what the most experience of the group is up to or where asset allocations are trending. Comment! [Financials]
Friday, May 10, 3:32 PM More personell changes at Morgan Stanley (MS) where deputy head of investment banking Ji-Yuen Lee left the bank recently, according to sources. Lee was a key lieutenant of investment banking chief Paul Taubman who left last year after losing a power struggle with Colm Kelleher. (previous) Comment! [Financials]
Friday, May 10, 1:23 PM Morgan Stanley (MS) rehires M&A banker John Collins for the newly created role as global operations officer for the investment banking division. Collins left Morgan three years ago to join boutique player Moelis & Co. He starts his new gig in early July. Comment! [Financials]
Monday, April 29, 8:30 AM Mcgraw-Hill (MHP) gains 5.2% premarket after S&P settles 2 lawsuits concerning pre-crisis ratings before letting the evidence be presented to a jury. Co-defendants in the case were Moody's (MCO) and Morgan Stanley. MS +1.8% premarket. The trial would have been a preview of the DOJ's suit against S&P. Comment! [Financials]
Sunday, April 28, 4:28 AM Moody's and S&P (MHP) have settled lawsuits that accused them of misleading investors about the safety of two subprime mortgage vehicles that they had rated and which collapsed as the housing market imploded. Morgan Stanely (MS), which was involved with the assets, also settled. The value of the deals wasn't disclosed, while S&P didn't admit wrongdoing. The agreements come as S&P faces a $5B DOJ lawsuit over its pre-financial crisis ratings. Comment! [Financials, Top Stories]
Sunday, April 28, 3:25 AM San Francisco based Union Bank, a unit of Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MTU), is reportedly in negotiations to acquire Morgan Stanley's (MS) trust-banking assets, which are valued at around $4B. Any deal would add to Union Bank's purchase of a portfolio of $3.7B in U.S. real-estate loans from Deutsche Bank as MUFG looks to expand overseas to offset anemic demand in Japan. Comment! [Financials, M&A, Top Stories]
Thursday, April 25, 2:53 PM Morgan Stanley Wealth Management (MS) continues on a bit of a roll, hiring three veteran advisers managing about $500M between them. The hires come from Deutsche, BofA, and Wells. Comment! [Financials]
Monday, April 22, 12:19 PM New regulations here and across the pond will eliminate $17B of trading revenue from the global banks, says Deutsche Bank - about 9% of total sales last year. The costs will be onerous enough, says Deutsche, as to maybe force the departure from FICC (bonds, commodities, currencies) trading of any firm with less than 6% market share. At risk: HBC, RBS, CS, MS, SCGLY.PK. UBS has already exited. 3 Comments [Financials]
Thursday, April 18, 1:44 PM Morgan Stanley's (MS -4.5%) cost-cutting efforts brought its expense ratio down to 80% from 97% a year ago, but it's still well above Goldman's 67%, writes Antony Currie. Focusing on wealth management is a good idea, he says, as the unit's 17% margins means good thing for the bottom line. On the CC (transcript), Mike Mayo noted competitors margins were in the 20s and asked Gorman if he would commit to that level. Gorman demurred, saying he's gotten burned by such promises in the past. 1 Comment [Financials, On the Move]
Thursday, April 18, 10:59 AM Financial advisory fees on both sequential and a Y/Y basis at Morgan Stanley (MS -3%) were the worst among the major players, notes analyst Mike Mayo on the bank's CC. Responding, CFO Ruth Porat says institutional rankings have remained consistent. Given the stock's apparent discount to tangible value, Mayo questions why the bank hasn't been more aggressive with buybacks. CEO Gorman responds the focus was on passing the Fed's stress tests and closing the Smith Barney transaction. For now, capital will continue to build. Comment! [Financials, On the Move]

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