Morgan Stanley News

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney will pay a $15 million penalty as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission related to four financial advisers who stole millions of dollars of advisory clients’ and brokerage customers’ funds

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Working in a bank’s technology department might finally be as cool as than landing a job at Google. The market for tech talent is more measured than a few years ago, but big banks say they are still aggressively hiring.

Canadian dollar and Australian dollar were in focus on Monday ahead of their central bank meetings this week, while the euro and other major currencies held steady as traders reviewed the U.S. dollar's prospects. With a quarter point rate cut by the Federal Reserve next week a near certainty as per market pricing, analysts say the dollar is looking tired after its long run-up in the four weeks since Donald Trump won the presidential election.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Wall Street is grappling with whether another year of robust gains is possible for a stock market that is looking precariously expensive. The S&P 500 has surged 28% in 2024 and is on pace for back-to-back annual jumps of more than 20% for the first time since a four-year stretch that ended in 1998.

Meanwhile, brokerages including Morgan Stanley are reiterating their expectation of a 25-basis-point interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve in December, following the nonfarm payrolls data. Financial markets currently assign a probability of around 70 per cent that the Fed will cut rates by a quarter percentage-point at its December meeting, and a roughly 30 percent chance it will pause, according to data from CME Group.

Morgan Stanley says Sensex can even hit the 105,000-mark in the next one year in the bull case scenario. Morgan Stanley said there is a 30% probability of the Sensex hitting 105,000 by December 2025 while in the base case scenario it sees the index hitting 93,000-level.

Zomato on Thursday rallied up to 6% to hit a fresh all-time high of Rs 304.50 on BSE. The stock, which is set to enter Sensex from December-end, is now on the verge of crossing the Rs 3 lakh crore market capitalization mark. Zomato rival Swiggy's Q2 earnings had positive read-throughs for investors in Zomato as well. Global brokerage firm CLSA reiterated its 'outperform' rating on Zomato with a target price of Rs 370, citing a strong momentum in the quick commerce segment and its leadership position.

Most analysts believe that the current slowdown in earnings, which was also reflected in Q2 GDP growth hitting a seven-quarter-low of 5.4%, is likely to be limited only to the first two quarters.

Cipla shares are in focus today after Samina Hamied and Rumana Hamied, promoters of the pharmaceutical company, exited by selling their 1.72% stake for Rs 2,111 crore through open market transactions. Investors including the Singapore government, Societe Generale, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BNP Paribas, BofA Securities, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Norges Bank, UBS, and Copthall Mauritius bought stakes in Cipla. According to block deal data available on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Samina sold 89.54 lakh shares of Cipla, while Rumana Hamied offloaded 49.43 lakh shares, amounting to a 1.11% and 0.61% stake, respectively.

It's not unheard of for people who leave banking and set up their own companies to be bullish. Nor is it unheard of for those ex-bankers to work very hard and to expect their new employees to do the same. Alexander Lomax ticks two of those boxes, but not the third. 

Hyundai Motor India shares rose by nearly 2% to the day's high of Rs 1,926 on the BSE after Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan initiated coverage. JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have initiated coverage on the automaker with an overweight rating, citing its strong growth potential, strategic positioning in the SUV and electric vehicle (EV) segments, and promising valuation metrics.

Morgan Stanley bought over 6.7 lakh shares in Niyogin Fintech at a total cost of Rs 3.74 crore via a block deal on Tuesday. The stock was purchased at a price of Rs 55.65 apiece, up 2.8% against the Monday closing price of Rs 54.14 on the BSE. The seller in the deal was Think India Opportunities Master Fund LP which sold as many shares. The fund held 87,24,344 shares in the company as on September 30, 2024 which represented 9.17% stake.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Morgan Stanley discovered last year that a yearslong brokerage customer had been convicted in 2005 in a U.S. court—for lying about terrorism investigations—and had links to al Qaeda bombings of U.S.

Ridham Desai, Head of India Research and Chief India Equity Strategist,Morgan Stanley, says India is in a strong position and there's no need for concern. However, stricter policies could pose challenges in the latter half of next year. The recent growth slowdown was temporary, influenced by elections and heavy rains. By the end of September, the government's cash balance with the RBI was nearly Rs 3.6 trillion, indicating deferred spending, resulting in a fiscal deficit of 3.4%, well below the 4.9% target. The government's cash balance has now decreased to below Rs 60,000 crore, and since October 1, they have spent Rs 3 lakh crore in addition to tax revenues. Desai says India will be one of the rare exceptions which will stop borrowing to pay interest in about three years and will move to primary balance. When that happens, government debt to GDP will fall because nominal GDP in India is still 10-11%. It will create major space for the private sector to re-lever and a major lending boom in the private sector can be expected, accompanied by a big capex cycle.

Jonathan Bloomer wasn't a chairman of Morgan Stanley International in the investment banking sense of the word. He was a chairman of Morgan Stanley International in the standard sense of the word: Bloomer has chaired Morgan Stanley's London board of directors since 2016 as part of a portfolio of non-executive director roles. Now, Morgan Stanley may sadly need to find someone else. 

Trump’s planned administration. Benchmark indexes advanced in Japan, South Korea and Australia, while futures climbed in Hong Kong. The Nasdaq 100 outperformed Monday after its longest rout since January, with Tesla Inc. rising 5.6% on a news report Trump’s transition team have told advisers they plan to make a federal framework for fully self-driving vehicles one of the Transportation Department’s priorities. Nvidia Corp., which reports results this week, fell.

Financial services hiring is perking up everywhere, but in Hong Kong it's looking particularly sprightly. Bloomberg reported yesterday that professionals licensed with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) increased at the fastest rate ever in the past four months.  One of those hires was at Goldman Sachs, which has just relocated a London-based MD from a rival bank who previously spent the bulk of his career in Hong Kong.

The clean energy subsidiary of state-backed NTPC Ltd. has held discussions with advisers about pricing its IPO at more than 100 rupees ($1.18) a share, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. NTPC Green Energy may raise up to 100 billion rupees in the share sale, the company has previously said.

From 1 May 2025, Chappuis' appointment comes as the current CEO and president of PGIM, David Hunt, retires. Hunt will continue as chair until the end of July next year «to ensure a smooth transition», according to the company.  PGIM's multi-asset arm poaches from Goldman Sachs AM for head of portfolio management role Chappuis will report to Andrew Sullivan, head of international businesses and global investment management for Prudential Financial, who praised Hunt for his leadership. He said that under the outgoing CEO's tenure, «PGIM has grown to become one of the premier global a...

The Labor Department issues its October report on consumer prices on Wednesday, The Walt Disney Co. releases its latest quarterly financial results before the bell on Thursday followed by the Labor Department's latest report on weekly unemployment bene...