Petty Jockeying Between Morgan Stanley And Goldman Sachs (MS), (GS)

The rivalry between venerable Wall Street firms Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has now spilled over into jockeying over when they release their respective earnings reports. Near the end of December, Morgan Stanley announced that it would announce earnings on January 21, 2010. Several weeks later Goldman said that it would also release its earnings on January 21. This was a peculiar move as firms normally choose different dates to report their numbers so that analysts have some time to examine the data.

It appears that Goldman (GS) chose Jan 21st in an effort to show up Morgan Stanley (MS). Whereas GS is having one of the most profitable years in the firm's history, Morgan Stanley is struggling in the wake of the financial crisis. Analysts are predicting that Morgan will post a profit of $526 million versus a $2.9 billion windfall for Goldman. Apparently, bankers at MS were none too happy with its rival's petty maneuvering. On January 8, Morgan Stanley reported that it would be moving its earnings release date up a day to January 20.