Q3 Bank Earnings: Morgan Stanley & BlackRock Beat, BofA Craters
Morgan Stanley's equities trading surged 18% above estimates; BlackRock jumped 5%+ pre-market; Bank of America missed across the board and fell 4% compounded by a $1.2B money laundering fine.
What we know
Morgan Stanley delivered a strong Q3 with EPS $3.03 vs $2.91 est. and equities trading of $5.80B — nearly $1B above the $4.9B estimate — though FICC missed at $2.01B vs $2.22B and an account on X. BlackRock surged 5.3% on EPS $15.93 vs $14.30 est.. In contrast, Bank of America reported its ugliest results in years per zerohedge: EPS $1.08 vs $1.10 est., Revenue $29.96B vs $30.76B est., with both FICC and equities trading missing. The miss was compounded by a $1.2B Treasury fine for willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act and failing to timely report $5B+ in suspicious transactions per @FT — which another account on X memorably framed as an 'infinite money glitch.' ASML beat on revenue and EPS but warned on gross margin guidance (56% vs 54% est. for FY26), raising memory chip bubble concerns.
How the story developed
Morgan Stanley's equities trading surged 18% above estimates; BlackRock jumped 5%+ pre-market; Bank of America missed across the board and fell 4% compounded by a $1.2B money laundering fine.
The S&P 500 has been coiled in a historically tight 36-point range ahead of tomorrow's CPI print at 8:30 AM ET. Bank of America and Morgan Stanley also report before the bell.
Morgan Stanley laid out a concrete tokenization roadmap targeting Q1 2027 for tokenized equities on its ATS, with proprietary wallet infra and a new Digital Asset Lab. Institutional appetite for tokenized assets dominated Token2049 chatter.
By the Global Eye 24 desk, with AI assistance. Updated as the story develops. Spot an error? Write to corrections@globaleye24.com.