Banking giant Morgan Stanley today reported a net first quarter loss of $177m, swinging into the red on property investments and an unfavourable mix of interest rates.
The Wall Street investment banking group that became a commercial bank last year to help weather the financial crisis saw a sharp turnaround from a profit of $1.4 billion a year ago.
The loss amounted to 57 cents a share, far worse that the Wall Street expectation of a deficit of eight cents a share.
'While challenging markets continued to impact our results this quarter, we saw improved performance across most of our businesses during the past three months,' said chairman and CEO John Mack.
'The firm delivered strong results in investment banking, commodities, interest rates and credit products as well as solid performance in global wealth management,' he added.
'In fact, Morgan Stanley would have been profitable this quarter if not for the dramatic improvement in our credit spreads - which is a significant positive development, but had a near-term negative impact on our revenues,' he said.
Overall revenues in the quarter fell 62% from a year ago to $3.04 billion.
