Morgan Stanley profit more than doubles on deal making

The last of the major American banks reporting results underscored just what a banner quarter it was for Wall Street. Morgan Stanley said Friday its profit more than doubled to nearly $4 billion, breezing past analysts’ expectations.

Like its archrival Goldman Sachs, the investment bank benefited from the surge in trading and the global deal making boom.

The retail craze over so-called “meme stocks” like GameStop fueled its trading volumes, driving revenue at its institutional securities business up 66%.

Morgan Stanley also benefited from the surge in initial public offerings featuring private firms merging with listed shell companies. Its investment banking revenue more than doubled.

But Morgan Stanley suffered a setback, recording a one-time loss of over $900 million. It was one of six banks that had exposure to a family office fund that defaulted on margin calls last month and triggered a fire sale of stocks.

Still, Morgan Stanley’s results capped a blowout quarter for the biggest U.S. banks that saw Goldman’s profit jumping 6-fold and Wells Fargo’s catapulting 7-fold.

Shares of Morgan Stanley rose in early trading Friday.