NEW YORK (AP) — Morgan Stanley became the latest investment bank to report weaker results yesterday from a trading slowdown during the summer.

The New York-based bank reported a net loss during the third quarter as revenue fell 20 percent and because of some special one-time charges. Even stripping out the charges, adjusted earnings tumbled from the year-ago period.

Morgan Stanley's CEO James Gorman said in a statement: "Our results in aggregate clearly do not reflect the true potential of Morgan Stanley's global client franchise and I am not satisfied with our overall performance."

The bank's shares reversed a morning slide and rose 23 cents to $25.62 in afternoon trading as the broader market also rallied.

Paul Zubulake, a senior analyst at Aite Group, said Morgan Stanley was up against the same problems other investment banks were facing. Economic, regulatory and political uncertainty all factored into a slowdown in trading and market activity, he said.

"There's just less risk-taking going on," Zubulake said.

Morgan Stanley was hurt, like competitors Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., as customers significantly ratcheted back on investing. Everyone from retail investors to large institutions scaled back their trading during the summer because of worries about the health of the economy and a general lack of volatility that often propels trading.

"It was a really protracted slowdown reflecting ongoing uncertainty in the markets," Ruth Porat, Morgan Stanley's chief financial officer said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Morgan Stanley was especially hard-hit by a slowdown in bond trading and underwriting stock offerings. Porat said the pace had started to pick up in September but that it was too early to tell if the gains would continue. Craig Fehr, a senior financial services analyst for Edward Jones, said growth in the investment banking division is likely to be moderate over the next year as customers slowly re-enter financial markets. He predicted growth could be between six percent and eight percent during the next 12 months.

Morgan Stanley's overall revenue fell 20 percent to $6.8 billion in the third quarter, but that was still ahead of the $6.4 billion forecast by analysts.