Remember March? When oil was ripping, the Strait of Hormuz was blockaded, and every market strategist on TV was warning about a generational shock?
Morgan Stanley‘s (NYSE:MS) trading desks apparently took notes — and then took the other side.
- MS stock is moving. See the chart and price action here.
Morgan Stanley Record Trading Revs
The firm reported Wednesday that it pulled in $5.15 billion from equity trading in the first three months of 2026, a single-quarter record for the segment.
Fixed income added another $3.36 billion.
Put those together and the Institutional Securities division cleared $10.7 billion in net revenue, the best three-month run it has ever reported.
The top-line numbers are just as striking. Total net revenue hit $20.6 billion — the first time the firm has crossed the $20 billion mark in a single quarter.
Earnings per share came in at $3.43. Return on tangible common equity landed at 27.1%.
Every one of those figures is a record, per the company’s own release.
Chairman and CEO Ted Pick, in the statement accompanying the numbers, credited “strong execution” and “robust client engagement” on increased market volatility.
Translation: the war scare that sent everyone else scrambling gave Morgan Stanley’s desks their busiest quarter on record.
Investment Banking
The Institutional Securities rebound was only half the story. Investment banking revenue climbed 36% year-over-year to $2.12 billion, with advisory fees alone jumping 74% to $978 million on completed M&A activity in the Americas, according to the release.
Wealth Management pulled in a record $8.5 billion in revenue and $118.4 billion in net new client assets, with a pre-tax margin of 30.4 percent.
The firm also bought back $1.75 billion of its own stock during the quarter and closed its acquisition of EquityZen, expanding its private-markets footprint.
Hours after the earnings hit, Morgan Stanley launched a four-part $10 billion investment-grade bond offering — one of the largest ever by a Wall Street bank — to round out the day.
For a quarter widely characterized as a white-knuckle ride for investors, the tape Morgan Stanley filed with regulators tells a very different story.
The Hormuz headlines faded. The trading revenue did not.
Photo: Taljat David / Shutterstock
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