Earnings at Morgan Stanley dropped by 36% in the second quarter, as the firm posted the sharpest decline in performance of the four big US securities firms which announced their quarterly results this week.

Morgan Stanley's net income fell to $930m (€1.06bn) in the second quarter of this year from $1.46bn in the same period last year. Overall revenues dropped 19% and net income across the entire securities division plummeted 42%.