Bloomberg (January 18)
“The new year was supposed to bring opportunities for beaten-down software stocks. Instead, the group is off to its worst start in years.” Amid fears that AI will undercut the benefits of software, “valuations for software companies keep getting cheaper. The Morgan Stanley basket is priced at 18 times earnings projected over the next 12 months, its cheapest on record, and well below an average of more than 55 times over the past decade.”
Tags: AI, Beaten-down, Benefits, Cheaper, Fears, Morgan Stanley, Opportunities, Software, Software stocks, Undercut, Valuations, Worst start
Reuters (November 4)
“Fears of a market bubble come as the benchmark S&P 500 continues its meteoric climb, repeatedly hitting record highs and evoking memories of the dot-com boom.” And on Tuesday, the chief executives of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs warned that “global equity markets could be heading towards a correction, underscoring a growing concern that investor optimism has driven valuations to sky-high levels.”
Tags: Boom, Concern, Correction, Dot-com, Equity markets, Executives, Fears, Goldman Sachs, Investor optimism, Market bubble, Meteoric, Morgan Stanley, Record highs, S&P 500, Valuations
Barron’s (April 13)
“Wall Street chief executives’ cautious-to-downbeat remarks about the economy on Friday stood in contrast with their firms’ first-quarter showings and their outlooks for the rest of the year. JPMorgan Chase +4.00%, Wells Fargo -0.95%, and Morgan Stanley +1.44% reported solid earnings results, while BlackRock +2.33% posted another quarter of record assets.” Investors who were “expecting market-sensitive firms to dial down their earnings forecasts” instead found the firms “left their outlooks largely unchanged.” This could, however, just ”mean revisions are in store for later in 2025.”
Tags: Assets, BlackRock, Cautious, Chief executives, Downbeat, Earnings results, Economy, Forecasts, Investors, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Outlooks, Q1, Remarks, Wall Street, Wells Fargo
American Banker (January 7)
“JPMorgan Chase bid farewell to the Net-Zero Banking Alliance on Tuesday, making it the last big U.S. bank to leave the climate-banking group ahead of the second Trump administration.” The latest defection “comes on the heels of similar departures last week by three of its peers — Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. In early December, Goldman Sachs became the first large U.S. bank to leave the alliance. Wells Fargo’s exit was reported about two weeks later.”
Tags: Bank, BoA, Citigroup, Climate, Defection, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Net-Zero Banking Alliance, Trump, U.S., Wells Fargo
Reuters (January 2)
Jane Street and Citadel Securities looked primed to seize “a much bigger slice of the $150 billion global-markets pie,” disrupting incumbent trading giants like JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank “who in 2025 will notice electronic market-makers acting more like banks.” Until now, there’s been a “seemingly happy co-existence” with the electronic market makers focused on flow, but that “will end in 2025” when “the upstarts” flex their greatly expanded capital base to make “a fresh assault on bond and commodity trading.”
Tags: $150 billion, Banks, BoA, Bonds, Capital base, Citadel Securities, Commodity trading, Deutsche Bank, Disrupting, Electronic market-makers, Global markets, Incumbent, Jane Street, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Trading giants
Bloomberg (August 27)
“Wall Street is beginning to sour on the outlook for crude next year, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley lowering price forecasts as global supplies increase, including potentially from OPEC+.” Both banks “now foresee global benchmark Brent averaging less than $80” and expect “prices trending lower over the 12 months.”
Tags: Benchmark, Brent, Crude, Forecasts, Global supplies, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, OPEC, Outlook, Sour, Wall Street
Bloomberg (April 8)
“Almost $1.5 trillion of US commercial real estate debt comes due for repayment before the end of 2025. The big question facing those borrowers is who’s going to lend to them?” Morgan Stanley has estimated “office and retail property valuations could fall as much as 40% from peak to trough, increasing the risk of defaults.” Regional banks are now skittish about lending and “the wall of debt is set to get worse before it gets better.”
Tags: $1.5 trillion, 2025, Borrowers, Commercial real estate, Debt, Defaults, Morgan Stanley, Office, Peak, Regional banks, Repayment, Risk, Skittish, Trough, U.S., Valuations
Bloomberg (December 13)
“A sharp increase in China’s Covid infections following an abrupt end to strict pandemic control measures suggests investors may need to pare back on reopening trades, according to Morgan Stanley.”
Tags: Abrupt, China, Covid, End, Infections, Investors, Morgan Stanley, Pandemic control, Pare, Reopening trades, Sharp increase, Strict
Financial Times (June 22)
Wall Street banks “have been at the forefront of the push to convince workers to return to the office.” In the strictest vaccination policy yet, “Morgan Stanley employees and clients who have not received their Covid-19 vaccine will be barred from entering the bank’s New York offices.”
Tags: Banks, Barred, Clients, COVID-19, Employees, Forefront, Morgan Stanley, New York, Office, Return, Strictest, Vaccination policy, Wall Street
Investment Week (July 17)
“A ‘no deal’ Brexit could result in sterling falling to parity with the dollar,” according to Morgan Stanley. “Exiting the European Union without a deal looks increasingly likely.” In a “worst-case scenario” the pound, currently at $1.24, could plunge roughly 19% “to historic lows of $1-$1.10.”
