Morgan Stanley profit beats expectations on dealmaking and trading boost

Morgan Stanley’s second-quarter profit beat expectations as a strong run in mergers, acquisitions and trading kept fees flowing through its Wall Street businesses. The bank said the quarter’s mix of busy dealmaking and unsettled macro conditions lifted investment banking and trading results, even as many companies kept a wary eye on rates, trade policy and geopolitics.

Net income rose to $5.58 billion, or $3.46 a share, from $3.54 billion, or $2.13 a share a year earlier. Revenue climbed to a record $21.3 billion, and the firm’s financial supplement showed firmwide net revenues of $21.348 billion. Institutional Securities generated $11.04 billion, Wealth Management $8.86 billion and Investment Management $1.65 billion, underscoring how broadly the quarter’s strength ran across the franchise.

Ted Pick said “active markets and consistent execution across all three regions” drove “record revenues” and record earnings per share. Morgan Stanley’s investment-banking revenue jumped to $2.44 billion from $1.54 billion a year earlier, a gain tied to a market that rewarded large transactions and advisory work. The firm was active in some of the year’s biggest mandates, advising Fertitta Entertainment on its $17.6 billion agreement to buy Caesars Entertainment, serving as a lead underwriter on SpaceX’s market debut and helping on capital-markets work for Cerebras and Alphabet.

The broader backdrop was just as important. Announced global M&A reached $2.8 trillion in the first half of 2026, up 48% from a year earlier and the highest first-half total in LSEG’s data set going back to 1980. That wave has been helped by a lighter regulatory tone and buoyant equity markets, encouraging executives to pursue larger transactions and handing banks a windfall in advisory fees.

Morgan Stanley’s results also fit a broader pattern across Wall Street, after JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs posted similar gains a day earlier. Wealth Management added a record $148 billion in net new assets, and total client assets across Wealth and Investment Management reached $10 trillion, giving the bank a second pillar of growth alongside dealmaking and trading. The company released the results at about 7:30 a.m. ET and held its conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET, setting up management to face questions about whether the deal rush and market volatility can keep supporting earnings through the rest of 2026.