New York, Jan 15, 2026, 13:11 EST — Regular session
- Morgan Stanley shares climb after reporting fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results
- Investors focus on the rebound in investment-banking fees and steady wealth inflows
- Traders watch the tone on dealmaking, capital returns and the next Fed meeting
Morgan Stanley shares were up about 5.9% at $191.41 in early afternoon trading on Thursday, after the bank posted its latest quarterly results and lifted its payout to shareholders.
The move matters because big U.S. banks are setting the tone for earnings season, and Wall Street’s fee businesses can swing quickly when dealmaking and new listings thaw.
Morgan Stanley is also a litmus test for the “real economy” side of the market — companies raising money, buying rivals, and wealthy clients staying invested when headlines turn noisy.
Morgan Stanley said fourth-quarter net revenues rose to $17.89 billion and earnings came in at $2.68 per diluted share, as investment banking revenue climbed to $2.41 billion. Net new assets in wealth management were $122.3 billion, and total client assets across Wealth and Investment Management rose to $9.3 trillion, the bank said. The board declared a $1.00 quarterly dividend payable Feb. 13 to shareholders of record Jan. 30, and the firm repurchased $1.5 billion of stock in the quarter.
CFO Sharon Yeshaya said the bank is “seeing an accelerating pipeline in M&A and IPOs,” referring to mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings. CEO Ted Pick told analysts the firm would stay patient on acquisitions, while flagging geopolitical risks and a “complicated” macro backdrop. Reuters
The earnings come as rivals also point to a sturdier deal environment. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told analysts, “The world is set up… to be incredibly constructive in 2026 for M&A,” and Dealogic data in the same report put global M&A volumes at $5.1 trillion in 2025, up 42% from 2024. Reuters
For Morgan Stanley, investors keep coming back to the mix: more fee income from wealth management — where “assets under management” means client money the firm oversees for a fee — and a higher-beta investment bank that surges when underwriting and advisory reopen.
But the deal rebound can stall if markets wobble, valuations cool, or companies decide to sit on their hands again. The bank’s own caution on geopolitics is a reminder that pipelines don’t always turn into fees.
Next up: traders will be parsing how rate expectations shift into the Federal Reserve’s Jan. 27–28 policy meeting, a key date for underwriting calendars and risk appetite across Wall Street.
