Morgan Stanley reported earnings [8]this morning, and showed that unless one has massive loan loss reserves to release, US banks are in big trouble. The firm just reported $0.28 EPS including DVA benefit, on expectations of $0.29. But it was the top line that got blown out, with the firm reporting $7.0 billion in revenue including the DVA fudge, but more importantly $6.6 billion. The expectations was for a $7.58 billion top line: a 14% miss. The top line number plunged over 25% compared to a year ago. The main reason for the collapse in profit: the virtual disappearance of any cash from combined fixed income, commodity and equity sales and trading, which imploded from $3.7 billion a year ago, to just $1.9 billion this quarter. And while the company slashed comp in Q2 as was to be expected following such horrible results, by over 33% to $1.4 billion from $2.2 billion, here is what most are focused on: "As a result of a rating agency downgrade of the Firm's long-term credit rating in June, the amount of additional collateral requirements or other payments that could be called by counterparties, exchanges or clearing organizations under the terms of certain OTC trading agreements and certain other agreements was approximately $6.3 billion, of which $2.9 billion was called and posted at June 30, 2012." In other words, the company has yet to post more than half of its contractually required collateral. In the aftermath of these atrocious earnings, we wish them all the best in getting access to this cash.
More details [8]:
- Advisory revenues were $263 million compared with $533 million a year ago on lower levels of market activity. Fixed income and equity underwriting revenues were $621 million compared with $940 million a year ago primarily reflecting lower market volume.
- Fixed income and commodities sales and trading net revenues were $770 million compared with $1.9 billion a year ago. The decrease in net revenues from last year's second quarter reflected reduced levels of client activity across geographies and most products.
- Equity sales and trading net revenues were $1.1 billion compared with $1.8 billion in the prior year quarter primarily reflecting lower results in the derivatives and cash businesses.
- Other sales and trading net losses were $11 million compared with losses of $507 million in last year's second quarter reflecting gains on hedges associated with corporate lending activity and the net positive impact of $76 million representing an out of period gain of $300 million on the incorrect application of hedge accounting on certain derivative contracts previously designated as net investment hedges of certain foreign, non-U.S. dollar denominated subsidiaries, partially offset by a loss of $224 million resulting from fair value changes within the quarter of the related derivative positions not qualifying for net investment hedge accounting.
- Compensation expense was $1.4 billion compared with $2.2 billion a year ago. The current quarter reflects an adjustment of approximately $160 million to reduce previously accrued discretionary above base compensation due to an updated 2012 financial outlook. The reported compensation to net revenue ratio was 44%; excluding DVA, this ratio was 49%. Non-compensation expenses were $1.3 billion compared with $1.5 billion a year ago.
- Morgan Stanley's average trading Value-at-Risk measured at the 95% confidence level was $91 million compared with $84 million in the first quarter of 2012 and $145 million in the second quarter of the prior year.
Gorman's take on this abysmal quarter:
“Although global economic uncertainty remains a headwind, we are proactively positioning the Firm for success. Our businesses showed resilience in key areas during the quarter, and we made progress against strategic goals. Despite muted volumes, Investment Banking maintained its industry-leading rankings. In Global Wealth Management, we increased our pre-tax margin to 12 percent in an environment marked by investor caution, and we integrated substantially all of our technology systems, which should bring additional value to our clients. We continue to be focused on taking the necessary steps to deliver strong returns for our shareholders.”
Just plain ugly, which is to be expected with ZIRP, and even more to be expected when nobody has any interest in trading.