Morgan Stanley says Wednesday that its earnings, which compare with a loss of $578 million a year ago, also came on a jump in its retail brokerage business. That's a sign that individual investors might be getting more comfortable with returning to the stock market.
Morgan Stanley's profit after payment of preferred stock dividends came to 99 cents per share on revenue of $9.08 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast the bank would earn 57 cents per share on revenue of $7.94 billion.
The company's stock rose almost 3 percent in preopening trading.