Stocks Under Pressure after Morgan Stanley Earnings Missed

U.S. stocks were under pressure in early trading on Thursday amid weaker-than-expected results from Morgan Stanley. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately slipped 34.23 points, or 0.14%, to 24,172.93. The S&P 500 was up 0.54 points, or 0.02%, to 2,616.64. The Nasdaq Composite gained 13.25 points, or 0.19%, to 7,047.94.

Oil futures declined sharply Thursday, tracking lower moves in most global equity benchmarks, as fear of a China-led demand slowdown gripped investors. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery fell $1.16, or 2.2%, to $51.15 a barrel. March Brent crude gave up $1.15, or 1.9%, to $60.18 a barrel.

Morgan Stanley missed analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit on Thursday. The bank’s total sales and trading net revenue fell 7 percent to $2.49 billion, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, led by a 30 percent decline in fixed income revenue. Equity trading revenue was flat at $1.93 billion. Net revenue fell 10 percent to $8.55 billion.