The earnings party continues

By now you've heard about Morgan Stanley's first-quarter earnings. Wow! It posted $2.51 earnings per share, analysts' average estimate was $1.88 per share. Revenue also beat expectations, $11 billion to $9.42 billion. It's clear that all the concerns that this quarter would be marking the end of a long earnings party were off the mark. Goldman Sachs and now Morgan Stanley are in very rare air. There have been very few signs so far that the subprime meltdown has had a meaningful effect. The company scaled back its mortgage risk before the meltdown. The firm also reduced riskier positions ahead of the global stock market correction on Feb. 27. That spared it some trading losses. As always, you have to wonder about next quarter. Can all this continue? John Mack told employees to stay motivated. 

For more:
- here's an article from Business Week online