EARNINGS : Morgan Stanley Plunges 61%

Morgan Stanley Group Inc. said today that Wall Street’s anemic investment banking climate caused a 61% drop in fourth-quarter profits and a 40% decline for all of 1990.

Morgan Stanley is the latest investment firm to report sharply lower earnings as the securities industry’s 4-year-old recession deepened late last year.

The firm said fourth-quarter profits fell to $58.3 million, or $1.41 per share, from $149 million, or $3.80 per share, in the same 1989 period. Revenue plummeted 30.7% to $488 million from $705 million a year earlier.

Revenue from investment banking services like mergers and acquisitions and securities underwriting were the major component of the decline, falling 51% from the year-earlier quarter.