Morgan Stanley has been among the hardest hit by the credit crisis, reporting $9.4bn (£4.8bn) of write-downs related to the mortgage market in its most recent quarterly results. The hit to the company's balance sheet forced John Mack, its chief executive, to seek a rescue refinancing from an arm of the Chinese government, which is paying $5bn for a stake of up to 10 per cent in the company. Yesterday, the respected finance industry analyst Meredith Whitney, of Oppenheimer & Co, cut her outlook for Morgan Stanley, saying that many parts of its once-booming debt business had dried up.