Gorman in February laid out a goal of increasing fixed- income revenue market share by 2 percentage points, with Colm Kelleher, co-head of the firm's investment bank, leading the effort. The firm had a market share based on revenue of about 6.5 percent among the top nine U.S. and European investment banks last year, up from about 5.5 percent in 2009, according to an April report by Glenn Schorr, a Nomura Holdings Inc. analyst.

"The reason we've set a 2 percent market share goal and think that's a reasonable first goal to set for ourselves is that market share is relatively low for this franchise," Porat said today in an interview. "We're regaining a share which would be a logical share on this platform, and I think that context is important. It gives us a little bit of a tailwind, even in a tougher market."

Goldman Sachs declined 0.7 percent on July 19 in New York trading after fixed-income trading revenue fell 63 percent from the first quarter. JPMorgan exceeded estimates last week as it posted trading revenue that topped all other major U.S. banks by more than $1.5 billion. Both companies are based in New York.

Equities Trading

In equities trading, headed by Ted Pick, Morgan Stanley's second-quarter revenue rose to $1.85 billion, from $1.70 billion in the first quarter and up 31 percent from a year earlier. The unit's revenue compares with $1.92 billion at Goldman Sachs and $1.22 billion at JPMorgan.

Morgan Stanley generated $1.47 billion in second-quarter revenue from investment banking, which is overseen by Paul J. Taubman. That figure, up 66 percent from a year earlier, included $533 million from financial advisory, $419 million from equity underwriting and $521 million from debt underwriting.

Global wealth management, led by Greg Fleming, posted pretax income of $322 million, up from $207 million in the second quarter of 2010. The division's pretax profit margin fell to 9 percent from 10 percent in the first quarter. Gorman has said the unit should eventually post a pretax profit margin of more than 20 percent.

Improve 'Soon'

"Margins must improve and do so soon," Gorman said on the call. Fleming and Chief Operating Officer Jim Rosenthal are analyzing "what else we really need to do to get ourselves faster to the finish line. So we are taking an aggressive relook at the back end of some of the integration steps," he said.

Asset management reported a pretax gain of $165 million, compared with a loss of $86 million in the previous year's period.