Morgan Stanley Just Surpassed Goldman In Market Value For The First Time In 10 Years

Morgan Stanley on Monday has surpassed Goldman Sachs in terms of market value for the first time in about decade, according to FactSet data. Morgan Stanley presently boasts a market capitalization of about $86.57 billion, compared with a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. at $86.08 billion, as of Monday afternoon trading. Morgan Stanley's shares have rallied 7% over the past 30 days, while Goldman's shares have advanced a mere 0.6%, and recently--including Monday's action--has been on a decided downtrend, falling 1.5% in July, compared with a roughly 5% climb for Morgan Stanley over the same period. A standout round of second-quarter trading helped Morgan Stanley's CEO James Gorman to a $1.76 billion profit as its Wall Street rival Goldman stumbled in trading for the second straight quarter, posting a 40% drop in its bread-and-butter fixed-income, currencies, and commodities business. Beyond trading, Gorman also has bet the bank's fortunes on asset management over volatile trading. Goldman's recent stumbles have sparked questions about the leadership of its longstanding CEO Lloyd Blankfein. On Monday, Goldman was one of the weaker performers, on the Dow Jones Industrial Average , down 0.7%, which came as the broader banking sector, as gauged by the bank-focused Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF enjoyed one of its best daily climbs since July 13. Strength in financial shares was one of the bright spots in the S&P 500 index , which was under pressure in afternoon trade. The last time Morgan Stanley had a bigger market cap than Goldman Sachs was around June 2007, just as the financial crisis was unfurling.