Friday's Headlines: Smith Barney's Not Living Up to Morgan Stanley's Hopes

Morgan Stanley's acquisition of Smith Barney's wealth management business was supposed to soften the blow of weak trading quarters, but the firm is suffering as much as rival Goldman Sachs, with both institutional and retail trading less of a boon than hoped. [ABC News]

The European Commission appears cool to the idea of introducing an EU-wide financial transaction tax on traded assets. [Telegraph]

Brokerages are hiring bankers and boosting capital during India's busiest year for mergers, international bond sales and stock offerings since 2007. [Bloomberg]

Barclays Plc hired former Goldman Sachs oil banker Yumi Hiramoto to meet demand from Japanese refiners and trading houses for hedging commodities. The bank wants to capture demand for crude and metals derivatives. [Bloomberg]