'Can promise' Morgan Stanley will miss medium-term financial targets: CEO

The last of the big US banks to report first-quarter earnings, Morgan Stanley said its profit slumped by 30% and it missed new return targets and cost-cutting goals

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman has informed its shareholders that he "can promise" the bank will miss its medium-term financial targets again in the current quarter, as the economic shutdown caused by the novel coronavirus will continue to upend the global and US economy.

"We're in a wild period," Gorman said on a call with analysts, noting economists predicting gross domestic product will fall 30 percent this quarter. "A CEO who stands by their short-term targets that were set right before this virus hit, I don't know what planet they're on."

The last of the big US banks to report