Michael J. Moore

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said earnings doubled, beating analysts’ estimates on a surge in underwriting revenue and gains from the firm’s own investments.

Investors overreacted to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s comments that the central bank could reduce monthly bond purchases, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein said.

Morgan Stanley has a plan to boost return on equity in fixed-income trading above its cost of equity after four of the five units failed to meet that metric last year, Chief Executive Officer James Gorman said.

Wall Street has contributed less than 2% of New York City’s job growth since the recession ended as cost-cutting efforts have led banks to replace fewer positions than other businesses.

Ken deRegt, a Morgan Stanley veteran called on to revamp risk-management and the fixed-income trading business after returning in February 2008, is leaving again to join investment firm Canarsie Capital Group.

Goldman Sachs has been “deficient” in linking compensation to company performance, Glass Lewis said in a report, which also opposed the re-election of compensation committee Chairman James A. Johnson. ISS said in a May 8 report that shareholders should vote for Johnson at the New York-based bank’s May 23 annual meeting.

Morgan Stanley reported profit that beat analysts’ estimates as pretax earnings from its retail brokerage, the world’s largest, rose to a record.

Goldman Sachs reported earnings that topped analysts’ estimates on a 63% gain in revenue from underwriting stocks and bonds.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. set aside $4.34 billion to pay employees in the first quarter, about 1 percent less than a year earlier, as the firm employed 400 fewer people.

Kaminsky, who was the cable television network’s capital markets editor, will work with Morgan Stanley’s financial advisors on client development.

Morgan Stanley, the biggest financial brokerage, will spend $500 million to improve computer systems after flaws in a previous upgrade frustrated the staff.

Morgan Stanley gave Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James Gorman a compensation package for 2012 that’s 30% less than his 2011 award, excluding a new incentive package, a person familiar with the decision said.

Morgan Stanley is seeking Federal Reserve approval to buy the remaining 35 percent of its brokerage joint venture with Citigroup Inc. this year.

Morgan Stanley, the top global equity underwriter last year, reported profit that beat analysts’ estimates as brokerage earnings more than doubled and margins from that unit surpassed the firm’s goal for this year.

For employees at the biggest Wall Street banks, 2012 brought a humbling post-crisis reality of job cuts, lower pay and tarnished reputations. For investors, it was a happier story.

Wall Street’s cost cuts and dismissals, which have helped erase more than 300,000 financial- industry jobs in the past two years, are far from over.

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman called on the investment bank’s employees to pressure U.S. lawmakers into reaching an agreement that averts the so-called fiscal cliff.

Wall Street firms must slash pay and headcount and shed almost a third of their trading-business assets to earn even half the returns they once made, according to Sanford C. Bernstein analysts.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein, grappling with a market slump that is putting trading earnings under pressure, said “sometimes cycles can last a very long time.”

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, posted a record third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as mortgage revenue soared 72