Morgan Stanley (MS)

[MiamiGent]

MS Morgan Stanley to adjust prices on Facebook trades
PROVIDED BY Reuters - 1:19 PM 05/23/2012
By Joseph A. Giannone

http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=MS

NEW YORK, May 23 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley (MS) told brokers on Wednesday it is reviewing every Facebook Inc (FB) trade and will make price adjustments for retail customers who paid too much during the social network company's debut last week, according to an internal memo.

Morgan Stanley (MS), the lead underwriter of Facebook's (FB) initial public offering on Friday, in the memo also said "many" of the first-day trades have now been processed and are appearing in client accounts. The company did not specify how much it expected to pay in total price adjustments.

"All orders are currently being reviewed for best execution pricing," the memo, which was obtained by Reuters, said. "We expect there will be a number of price adjustments. The largest adjustments will be processed first over the next several days and the remaining adjustments will be completed as quickly and as thoroughly as possible."

A "very limited number of orders" are still pending, but Morgan Stanley (MS) told its more than 17,000 brokers that it expects to have remaining orders resolved and booked Wednesday.

Morgan Stanley (MS) confirmed the contents of the memo but declined to elaborate.

Facebook's (FB) highly anticipated market debut Friday was beset by trading glitches on the Nasdaq s tock market. T he opening of trading in the social networking company's new shares was delayed by about 30 minutes. Shares priced by underwriters at $38 briefly rose to $45 in early trading but then fell and ended on Friday little changed.

A significant number of investors at Morgan Stanley (MS) and other brokerages were left in limbo - some as late as Tuesday - with trade orders that were not processed. (Reporting By Joseph A. Giannone; Editing by Walden Siew and Carol Bishopric)

[MWM]

MS looks like a lot of support here at $13...

[MWM]

MS I think she bounces off this $13.95 level...

[lucmariepierre]

i should have bought this company among other

[Sergey777]

Morgan Stanley Reports First Quarter 2012

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Morgan Stanley (MS 16.95 ?-1.51%) (NYSE: MS) today reported net revenues of $6.9 billion for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012 compared with $7.6 billion a year ago. For the current quarter, the loss from continuing operations applicable to Morgan Stanley was $78 million, or a loss of $0.05 per diluted share compared with income of $984 million, or $0.51 per diluted share, for the same period a year ago.

Technical Analysis Morgan Stanley $MS short target 13.82
http://bit.ly/JLrtzf

[AlanC]

Broker Bankrupted In Kangaroo Court
13 Mar 2012 10:56 EDT
By Al LewisDow Jones via eFXnews

Mark Mensack joined Morgan Stanley (MS) in 2008, landing an $873,000 signing bonus, but now he's in personal bankruptcy and just moments away from losing his home in Cherry Hill, N.J.

He's turning 50. He's got a wife and three kids. And this is where he's landed after losing an arbitration with his former employer before his industry's self-regulating body, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Mensack claimed he was forced to leave Morgan Stanley after he accused the firm of taking hidden fees from its retirement-account customers. In July, a Finra panel ruled against this would-be whistleblower and ordered him to pay Morgan Stanley $1.2 million, essentially demanding most of his bonus back after quitting, plus interest and legal fees.

It is extraordinarily difficult to successfully appeal a Finra ruling. It is even more difficult when Finra mysteriously loses several hours of recorded testimony.

Mensack told me that when his attorney requested recordings for an appeal, Finra wouldn't produce them. He said he eventually learned eight of about 18 hours of testimony from his case were missing. He sent me audio files that were inexplicably cut off at the end. He also showed me a Jan. 13 letter that Finra regional director Katherine Bayer wrote to his attorney. It said:

"Finra is required to make a...recording of every hearing. ...Unfortunately, portions of testimony returned to us by the panel are missing. ...I apologize for this and any perceived miscommunications from the Finra staff about the status of the recordings. ...I understand Mr. Mensack's disappointment with the arbitrator's decision. However, Finra has no authority to reverse the award."

A Finra spokeswoman declined to comment on the case.

A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman emailed me a prepared statement, calling Mensack's claims against the firm baseless:

"He had a full opportunity to present them, represented by counsel, in an extensive formal hearing. The arbitration panel gave them fair consideration and rejected them in their entirety. ...Having failed in arbitration, he is now attempting to prosecute his case in the media."

Mensack wanted to prosecute his case in a New Jersey state court, where he initially filed a whistleblower's lawsuit. But Morgan Stanley attorneys successfully argued in 2010 that his claims should be heard before Finra--an industry friendly body that sometimes displays little regard for evidence.

In October, the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Finra to hire an outside consultant to fix a problem it has producing documents. The SEC ruled that on Aug. 7, 2008, Finra's Kansas City office altered "three records of staff meeting minutes just hours before producing them to the SEC inspection staff, making the documents inaccurate and incomplete."

To me, this is the very definition of a kangaroo court: An alleged hall of justice that loses--and even tampers with--key records in its leaps of judgment. What kind of organization shuts down a whistleblower's claims, bankrupts him with a $1.2 million order and then can't find the testimony behind its damning decision?

Mensack is fond of quoting Harry Markopolos, who was famously ignored when he tried to blow the whistle on Bernie Madoff. Two words Markopolos has called Finra: "Very corrupt." Markopolos pointed out in Congressional testimony that Madoff himself was chairman, and his brother Peter vice chairman, of Finra's predecessor organization.

At the very least, Finra has proven absurd the argument that an industry can police itself.

Mensack has a long list of accusations against Morgan Stanley and Finra, from perjury and fabricating evidence to ethics violations and incompetence. He says the missing arbitration recordings would help prove these claims.

Instead, he will go down in history is an example of what happens in the financial industry if you spot something you think is wrong and try to drag it out in the open.

"My No. 1 concern," Mensack said, "is not losing my house."

Unfortunately, he can't stop taking the word "fiduciary" literally. A commissioned U.S. Army officer, he taught philosophy and ethics at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. He is also an Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst and continues to work as an independent fiduciary consultant.

Mensack claims that when he went to work at Morgan Stanley, he discovered the firm, and companies it partners with on retirement accounts, were double-dipping into a $4 billion pool of 401(k) assets. He says he first thought it was an innocent gaffe by people who didn't understand their fiduciary responsibilities. But when he ran his concerns up the ranks, he says he was retaliated against and ultimately forced to leave.

"For me to work at Morgan Stanley, and sell 401(k) products, I would have had to lie to people," he said. "That would have put me in a fiduciary breach. I can't do that. ...There is no amount of money that is going to make me knowingly lie to people. ...And Morgan Stanley never gave me a way out."

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
http://www.efxnews.com/story/11131/broker-bankrupted-kangaroo-court

[gixxer11]

http://www.webinquirer.co.uk/intermune-share-price-target-lowered-to-17-00-by-morgan-stanley-analysts-itmn/10551/

[canestsal]

??????????????????????,?????????,??????????

SELL!

[gixxer11]

Heads up going down !! After hrs

[gixxer11]

InterMune Share Price Target Lowered to $17.00 by Morgan Stanley


http://www.webinquirer.co.uk/intermune-share-price-target-lowered-to-17-00-by-morgan-stanley-analysts-itmn/10551/


Down she goes

[$King]

MS @ 19.66

[carl2591]

crap... knew i should have waited or just put order in at 18 to buy and let it sit.. got in yesterday at 18.3 oh well..

[MiamiGent]

MS.. Morgan Stanley Testing Fresh Pre-Bell Highs
PROVIDED BY Midnight Trader - 7:47 AM 01/19/2012

Morgan Stanley (MS) is lately hitting fresh pre-bell highs at 18.30 as it finds support mostly above 18 since posting its Q4 results earlier this morning.

The company reported Q4 revenue of $5.7 bln, better than the analyst consensus of $5.56 bln on Thomson Reuters but down from $7.7 bln in the year ago quarter. The loss from continuing operations was $227 million, or $0.14 per share, and included a loss related to MBIA of $1.7 billion or $0.59 per share, compared with income of $871 million, or $0.44 per diluted share, for the same period a year ago. The Street view was a loss of $0.57 per share, excluding items.

Price: 18.20, Change: +0.85, Percent Change: +4.9

http://www.midnighttrader.com

[tradersplaybook]

Playbook game plan for MS on 01/08/2012

Here's our thoughts:

[Flashtrader1]

Finished strong today and looking for a Pre or early pump on the open 5% to 10% then flat or pull back 5%. Just my humble opinion and Merry Christmas to all .

[rock lili]

shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) moved down 5.47% to end the trade at $14.16.

http://www.usamarketvoice.com/finance/7610/all-three-major-us-indexes-starts-the-week-in-red-on-eu-concerns.html

[rock lili]

Morgan Stanley Settles on $1.1 Billion Charges against MBIA ..........Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) decided to surrender insurance claims versus MBIA Inc (NYSE:MBI) in reutrn for a $1.1 billion payment from the poor insurer, snapping a two-year legal battle over guarantees on mortgage bonds.

Source Link: http://www.usamarketvoice.com/latest-happenings/7539/morgan-stanley-settles-on-1-1-billion-charges-against-mbia.html

[tvsoccerdad]

MS Bonds rally most improved beating goldman

[$King]

52 MIL VOL

[$King]

HOD 15.9

[$King]

LOD 14.98

[$King]

MS + 7%

[hdsstocks]

testestest

[tvsoccerdad]

Rally MS should reach 20 by next week

[hdsstocks]

DIE MS

[MinnieM]

I'm holding puts at the moment... don't really care which direction it goes... just like to catch the ride for a bit here and there.

Puts may be a bit of a gamble at the moment, but, I'm up thus far.

[$King]

i agree always watching ;)

[MinnieM]

It's an interesting trader...

[$King]

MS LOD 15.44

[gmoney123]

I want to trade this... If it dips low again to around 15 I will buy buy buy lower than 15 and in all in

[qwertzuiop]

i will keep this on Radar in November!

[qwertzuiop]

Am i the only 1 trading MS this month here? dont see posts lately

[qwertzuiop]

We are going UP again. great!

[J_Hamel]

HERE WE GOOOO

[MWM]

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Credit Risk Soars

By Mary Childs and Shannon D. Harrington - Oct 3, 2011 5:22 PM ET .

The cost to protect the debt of Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) surged to the highest levels since the weeks after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy as concern intensified that Europe’s debt crisis will infect the global banking system.

Contracts on Morgan Stanley, the New York-based owner of the world’s largest retail brokerage, soared 92 basis points to a mid-price of 583 basis points as of 4:30 p.m. in New York, the highest since October 2008, according to London-based data provider CMA. Those on Goldman Sachs increased 65 basis points to a mid-price of 395.

Traders pushed the cost of protecting banks and U.S. companies higher after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble opposed moves to increase the scale of the euro rescue fund, complicating efforts to prevent a Greek default. Swaps on Bank of America Corp. (BAC) jumped to a record and a measure of U.S. corporate credit risk rose to the most since May 2009.

“It’s such a difficult situation for the markets here,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi UFJ in New York, said in a telephone interview. “People are primed for bad news. They’re quick to believe the worst.”

The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index, which investors use to hedge against losses or speculate on creditworthiness, climbed to the highest since May 2009, adding 6.7 basis points to a mid-price of 150.9 basis points as of 5:10 p.m. in New York, according to index administrator Markit Group Ltd.

The index, which typically rises as investor confidence deteriorates and falls as it improves, has increased from 136.2 on Sept. 27 as concerns mount that Europe’s fiscal imbalances are worsening.

Mitsubishi Commitment

Five-year credit-default swaps tied to Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America’s senior debt climbed 33 basis points 457, according to CMA, a unit of CME Group Inc. that compiles prices quoted by dealers in the privately negotiated market.

Contracts on American International Group Inc. (AIG) surged 76 to 545, the highest since May 2010, CMA prices show.

The cost to protect Morgan Stanley’s debt has risen from 305 basis points on Sept. 15 and is at the highest level since October 13 2008, four weeks after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy. It reached as high as the equivalent of 1,300 basis points on Oct. 10 of that year, CMA prices show. It now costs $583,000 annually for five years for every $10 million of debt insured.

‘Dirty Word’

“Investment banks are largely black-box businesses, so in a world where risk is a dirty word, they are going to be punished in the capital markets,” Joel Levington, a managing director of corporate credit at Brookfield Investment Management Inc. in New York, said in an e-mail.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. said today it’s “firmly committed” to its long-term strategic alliance with New York-based Morgan Stanley. The Tokyo-based bank said it was reiterating its commitment to the firm “in response to recent market volatility.”

“The special relationship we have formed remains core to our global business strategy,” Mitsubishi UFJ said in the statement.

Credit-default swaps pay the buyer face value if a borrower fails to meet its obligations, less the value of the defaulted debt. A basis point equals $1,000 annually on a contract protecting $10 million of debt.

[MWM]

Sounds like 0 might be coming...

[$King]

MS @ 13.51

MS $10 coming

[MWM]

Two very interesting articles...

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67605842


http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67605925

[canestsal]

Morgan Stanley Shares Plunge: Epic Liquidity Crisis

From Forbes with Mark Gongloff of Bloomberg.

Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and JP Morgan may only have months of liquidity left

By Mark Gongloff

Bloomberg

One of the things rattling Morgan Stanley’s stock price today was a draft note by Bloomberg economist Joseph Brusuelas that discussed reasons for the company’s wide CDS spreads.

The note, which Mr. Brusuelas says was never meant for external consumption, had an error about the company’s net exposure to French banks.

It turns out that note had another error, too, in its estimate of the size of the bank’s derivatives exposure.

In the note Mr. Brusuelas suggests Morgan Stanley has $1.793 trillion in notional derivatives contracts outstanding, linking to an OCC report with that data. Liquidity at Morgan Stanley could rapidly be shrinking.

But a closer look at that report reveals that Morgan Stanley’s notional outstanding is actually much, much bigger — about $56 trillion in total. Mr. Brusuelas’s number includes only the exposure of Morgan Stanley’s commercial bank operations, which are very small, and misses the exposure of its holding company.

What’s also missing, however, is the context that this is not an unusually large derivatives exposure among the Too Big to Fail Set. J.P. Morgan has about $79 trillion — trillion, with a T — in notional derivatives contracts outstanding, for instance.

Finally, these gigantic numbers represent the notional value of underlying contracts. The net exposure is actually much, much smaller. J.P. Morgan’s total credit exposure, according to the OCC report, is about $360 billion.

That’s still a huge number — but a little more in the realm of normal human numbers than $78 trillion. We don’t know the comparable number for Morgan Stanley because OCC doesn’t give it.

[MWM]

I don't sit on a buy and hold, I play vol, that is what I look for period. Not to mention the wide range is even more of an indicator that their is trouble at MS...

[10nisman]

MS had a $17 to $12.50 range over the last few weeks, what crack are you smoking? Better than C, WFC, JPM, GS and any big name fin out there...

You clearly didn't look at the 1 month chart that I posted - MS has outperformed GS, JPM, JEF, C, BAC over the past month. MS has been more volatile (wider range) however its share performance over the past month on percentage terms has outperformed its friends.

[MWM]

Which large fin would you have made more money on with a short?

MS had a $17 to $12.50 range over the last few weeks, what crack are you smoking?

Better than C, WFC, JPM, GS and any big name fin out there...

Your a Jack, GL!

[10nisman]

I told you that I saw something weird going on with MS 1 month ago and it wasn't showing up on the charts and now the CDS spreads are blowing up and every single media outlet is blabbing about it. How about just saying nice call... Yet again today it is down more than any US financial... But thats ok, keep defending your explanations of why it's in the same boat as all the other fins...

Haha... Over the past month you could have made more money shorting any of the other financials I listed. So, what is the nice call on? Finishing 5th in a 5 man race? MS has been more volatile (i.e., bigger down and up moves relative to its friends), yet you only care to talk about it on down days.

BTW, had you said you expected MS CDS spreads to blow out then you would have made a great call but you didn't. You stated you saw something weird going on and now because some moronic media outlet is blabbing about it you must be a genius.

[MWM]

I told you that I saw something weird going on with MS 1 month ago and it wasn't showing up on the charts and now the CDS spreads are blowing up and every single media outlet is blabbing about it.

How about just saying nice call...

Yet again today it is down more than any US financial...

But thats ok, keep defending your explanations of why it's in the same boat as all the other fins...

[10nisman]

Have you looked at the one month chart of MS compared to its friends (GS, JEF, JPM, C, BAC, etc.)? Who has performed the best?

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=JEF+Interactive#chart7:symbol=jef;range=1m;compare=ms+gs+bac+c+jpm;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

[MWM]

10nisman






Share

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 11:37:50 AM



Re: MWM post# 93






Post # of 115



Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nope, on several days it has lead the % gains down compared to it's friends. Trust me, I've been watching. You can't tell just by lookng at a chart... trading much worse to it's direct competitor GS too...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haha. So you cannot tell by looking at the charts yet you post charts? That's genius. MS is more volatile than its larger friends however the return performance has been largely the same. Look at the performance of MS, GS and JEF over the past month. MS also announced leadership changes last week which could have led to some its recent volatility.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=MS+Interactive#chart12:symbol=ms;range=1m;compare=gs+jef;indicator=volume

[10nisman]

Yep I guess all that was just a figment of my imagination, glad you correted my outlandish guesses lol!

I don't recall correcting any of your outlandish guesses, although I do remember correcting your comment that MS was downgraded (which was not true) and the fact you missed the majority of the downside move in financials which started in late winter/early spring.

[MWM]

Yep I guess all that was just a figment of my imagination, glad you correted my outlandish guesses lol!

Morgan Stanley's CDS spread soars. The cost of acquiring credit-default swaps to insure Morgan Stanley's (MS) debt has soared to 456bp, higher than the cost of buying swaps for some major French and Italian banks. Morgan Stanley's CDS spread is still well below a post-Lehman peak of 1300bp, but nonetheless at its highest level since March 2009, as fears of French bank exposure heighten investor caution.

[MWM]

Morgan Stanley Seen as Risky as Italian Banks

Morgan Stanley (MS), which owns the world’s largest retail brokerage, is being priced in the credit- default swaps market as less creditworthy than most U.S., U.K. and French banks and as risky as Italy’s biggest lenders.

The cost of buying the swaps, or CDS, which offer protection against a default of New York-based Morgan Stanley’s debt for five years, has surged to 456 basis points, or $456,000, for every $10 million of debt insured, from 305 basis points on Sept. 15, according to prices provided by London-based CMA. Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP) has CDS trading at 405 basis points, and UniCredit SpA (UCG) at 424, the data show. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percent.

“The CDS spreads are making investors and creditors nervous” about Morgan Stanley, said Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York who rates the company’s stock “outperform,” in an e-mail.

The price of Morgan Stanley credit-default swaps has continued to climb even though the firm’s shares have risen this week. The stock jumped 93 cents, or 6.6 percent, to $15.09 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday, the fourth- biggest gainer in the 81-member S&P 500 Financials Index. Shares are down 45 percent since the start of the year.
Implied Risk

Moody’s Analytics, an arm of Moody’s Investors Service that’s separate from the company’s credit-rating business, said in a report yesterday that Morgan Stanley’s CDS prices imply that investors see the bank’s credit rating as having declined to Ba2 from Ba1 in the last month. The company is actually rated six grades higher at A2 by Moody’s Investors Service.

By comparison, Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and France’s Societe Generale (GLE) SA, which have CDS trading at 403 basis points and 320 basis points respectively, have prices that imply a rating of Ba1, higher than the implied rating on Morgan Stanley, said Allerton Smith, a banking-risk analyst at Moody’s Analytics in New York.

Mark Lake, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley in New York, declined to comment.

Morgan Stanley was the biggest recipient of emergency loans from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis and also benefited from capital provided by Tokyo-based Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., now the biggest shareholder, and the U.S. Treasury, which it repaid with interest.
2008 Peak

While the price of Morgan Stanley’s credit-default swaps is at the highest level since March 2009, it’s nowhere near the peak reached in 2008. On Oct. 10 of that year, the annual price for five-year protection rose to the equivalent of 1,300 basis points, according to data provided by CMA, a unit of CME Group Inc. that compiles prices quoted by dealers in the privately negotiated market.

The credit-default swaps market can be thinly traded, and the recent jump in prices may reflect no more than a single big counterparty seeking to hedge contracts, said Hintz, a former Morgan Stanley treasurer. Morgan Stanley, one of the biggest traders of CDS among U.S. banks, doesn’t make a market in its own swaps, according to Smith of Moody’s Analytics.

The CDS market has features “that may not exist in other markets like the bond market or the equities market,” Smith said in a telephone interview. Having fewer participants trading in the Morgan Stanley name could result in a “disproportionate spread movement,” he said.

The daily average trading volume in Morgan Stanley shares over the last three months is 27 million shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. By contrast, a three-month study released this week by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that most single-name CDS trade less than once a day, while the most active trade more than 20 times per day.
Swaps Volume

Trading in Morgan Stanley credit-default swaps has risen recently to 257 contracts last week, compared with 187 for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), according to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. That compares with a weekly average of 73 trades in Morgan Stanley and 91 in Goldman Sachs in the six months that ended on Aug. 26, DTCC data show.

There was a net $4.6 billion of protection bought and sold on Morgan Stanley debt as of Sept. 23, according to DTCC. Even with the higher trading volume, investor skittishness in the face of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis may be leaving few market participants willing to sell CDS protection to meet the demand for hedges, said Hintz.

“With the EU teetering, few other firms are going to jump in and write CDS on a global capital markets player like MS,” Hintz said in his e-mail, referring to the European Union and to Morgan Stanley’s stock-market ticker symbol.
Trading Decline

The rise in Morgan Stanley’s CDS prices may also relate to an expected decline in third-quarter trading revenue or to the company’s exposure to French banks, Smith said.

Ruth Porat, the bank’s chief financial officer, said at an investor conference on Sept. 13 that the fixed-income trading environment in the third-quarter was worse than 2010’s fourth quarter, when Morgan Stanley posted its lowest debt-trading revenue since the 2008 crisis. The company, led by Chief Executive Officer James Gorman, 53, reported second-quarter revenue from both investment banking and fixed-income trading that beat rival Goldman Sachs for the first time on record.

Morgan Stanley had $39 billion of cross-border exposure to French banks at the end of December before accounting for offsetting hedges and collateral, according to an annual filing with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission. Cross-border outstandings include cash deposits, receivables, loans and securities, as well as short-term collateralized loans of securities or cash known as repurchase agreements or reverse repurchase agreements.
‘Galloping Wider’

While Morgan Stanley hasn’t updated those figures, Hintz estimated in a Sept. 23 note to investors that the bank’s total risk to France and French lenders is less than $2 billion when collateral and hedges are included.

As of June 30, Morgan Stanley had about $5 billion of funded exposure to Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, which was reduced to about $2 billion when offsetting hedges were accounted for, according to a regulatory filing. The company also had about $2 billion in overnight deposits in banks in those countries and about $1.5 billion of unfunded loans to companies in those countries, the filing shows.

“Their spreads just are galloping wider,” Smith said. “Is it rational that Morgan Stanley CDS spreads would be wider than French bank CDS spreads if the concern is exposure to French banks? I don’t think that makes perfect sense.”
Bond Yield Climbs

Goldman Sachs, which like Morgan Stanley converted from a securities firm to a bank in 2008, had $38.5 billion of gross cross-border exposure to French banks as of June 30, according to a regulatory filing. The firm’s five-year credit-default swaps are trading at 308 basis points, according to CMA.

Morgan Stanley’s 10-year debt has also shown signs that investors are growing concerned. The yield on the company’s $1.5 billion of 5.5 percent senior unsecured notes that comes due in July 2021 has climbed to 6.3 percent from 5.46 percent on Sept. 15, according to prices reported by Trace, the bond price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

That’s still lower than the 6.91 percent yield on 4.125 percent bonds issued by Intesa Sanpaolo that come due more than a year earlier, in April 2020, according to Bloomberg data.

Morgan Stanley’s reliance on the debt markets, instead of depositors, to provide funding for its assets may be one cause of concern, some analysts said. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, which were the second-biggest and biggest U.S. securities firms before converting to banks, both got less than 10 percent of their funding from depositors as of June 30, according to company filings with the SEC.

By contrast, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the two largest U.S. banks by assets, funded more than half of their balance sheets with retail deposits at the end of June, filings show.

“The market is just very sensitive to anybody considered to be wholesale funded,” John Guarnera, a financial analyst at Societe Generale in New York, said in a Sept. 23 telephone interview. “If you’re a bank, you can fall back on the fact that you have a strong retail deposit base. Morgan Stanley has deposits, but not like you’d see out of a BofA or a JPMorgan.”

[TSRAYS]

bought some PUTS this morning myself. markets are only temporary IMO