Wall Street sage Barton Biggs dies

Barton Biggs, a former Morgan Stanley global strategist and pioneer of the hedge fund industry, has died.

Morgan Stanley (MS) chief executive James Gorman disclosed Briggs' death Monday in a memo to employees. A spokeswoman for the bank said Briggs died Saturday after a suffering from a blood infection. He was 79.

"Barton left an indelible mark on our business, our culture and our shared notion of leadership at Morgan Stanley," Gorman MORE

The anti-Facebook: ServiceNow soars in IPO

Did Morgan Stanley get it right this time?

Morgan Stanley (MS) certainly made investors happy Friday, a day after it priced cloud computing company ServiceNow's initial public offering at $18 a share.

It looked like a bold move last night (the estimated range was $15 to $17), but early Friday ServiceNow (NOW) debuted at $23.75, more than 30% above its IPO price. And its shares are still trading around $23.

None of us MORE

Goldman Sachs: Buy JPMorgan, hold off on Morgan Stanley

Goldman Sachs (GS) told investors early Tuesday to buy JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and  stop buying Morgan Stanley (MS).

JPMorgan Chase was upgraded to a so-called "conviction list buy," which, in Goldman Sachs' parlance, means run out and buy it. Conversely, Morgan Stanley was downgraded to a "hold" from a "buy."

Both banks have seen share prices fall precipitously this year, because of what Goldman's analysts say are "idiosyncratic events," including potential repercussions MORE

Facebook: IPO was fairly valued

Facebook said its initial public offering was fairly valued, according to a back-and-forth correspondence with regulators ahead of its IPO.

In documents released by the SEC Friday, Facebook (FB) said the difference between the company's fair value of $30.89 a share on Jan. 31 and the midpoint of its offering wasn't "meaningfully different."

In 2011, Facebook's fair value estimates went from $25.54 in March, to $30.07 in September before dropping back to MORE

Morgan Stanley: All grown up

Morgan Stanley (MS) is all grown up, Chief Executive Officer James Gorman said at Morgan Stanley's U.S. Financials Conference Tuesday afternoon.

Gorman painted a picture of a bank that has eschewed the rebellious and risky behavior of its adolescence for a conservative role as a bank -- not a trading outfit in a bank's clothing.

"If investors want to invest in hedge funds, they shouldn't be doing it through Morgan Stanley," Gorman MORE

Facebook's tailspin continues

It was supposed to be the IPO of the year, but Facebook's (FB) performance as a publicly traded company has been, in a word, disappointing.

Shares of the social network continued to fall Tuesday, dropping another 3.6% to end at $25.87. The stock is down 32% from its May 18 offering price of $38.

There were issues with Facebook's IPO from the start, when technical problems on the Nasdaq delayed its launch. MORE

Hey Citigroup: Morgan Stanley wants more of Smith Barney

Morgan Stanley (MS) is upping its stake in the wealth brokerage unit it has shared with Citigroup (C) since the two firms struck a deal in 2009 to merge their divisions.

Early Thursday, Morgan Stanley said it plans to buy a 14% stake in Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, which was created out of a merger between Citi and Morgan's wealth management units. Morgan Stanley already owns 51% of the business MORE

Facebook IPO: Outraged investor cries grow louder

So it's been a week since Facebook (FB) went public and investors are getting angrier by the day. As Wall Street's losses mount, it's the smaller investors who want Facebook to 'show them the money!,' to quote Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) in Jerry Maguire.

"I think we were all lied to and deceived about the value of FB from the very beginging (sic) and that something should be MORE