"We finished 2014 in substantially better shape than we entered the year," Morgan Stanley 's chief executive, James P. Gorman, said in the statement. "We delivered strong results across several of our businesses, although overall performance was affected by the choppy market conditions of the fourth quarter." Shares retreated 2.1 percent to $34.15 at 8:38 a.m. in New York. The stock had lost 10 percent since the beginning of the year through yesterday. Revenue from equities trading, an important profit driver for Morgan Stanley, rose to $1.63 billion from $1.5 billion a year earlier, but came in lower than what rival Goldman reported on January 16. The firm's more stable wealth management business turned in stronger results. Revenue in that division rose 2.4 percent from a year earlier to $3.8 billion. But the wealth management unit's pre-tax profit margin, a closely watched efficiency metric, was 19 percent in the fourth quarter, flat with a year earlier.