Here's what the smart money has been saying about Goldman and Morgan Stanley's second-quarter earnings, which were both posted this week.

Goldman Sachs

$2.09bn profit (down 11%)

'They have an uncanny ability to stay out of trouble'.

Thomas Russo, portfolio manager, Gardner Russ & Gardner (Reuters)

'At Goldman, they had enough of an arm's length distance so that when the stuff blew up it didn't splash back on them the way it did on others'.

Peter Sorrentino, senior portfolio manager, Huntington Asset Advisors (Bloomberg)

'They benefited from the disruption at the other investment banks. In tough times, people tend to gravitate toward the stronger financial firms'.

Rose Grant, Eastern Investment Advisors (Reuters)

'This quarter demonstrates Goldman's ability to thrive in all market environments, and to capitalise on competitors' weakness'.

Douglas Sipkin, analyst, Wachovia Securities (MarketWatch)

'Clearly, the first weeks of March were the bottom, at least for now. Now there is less concern about systemic liquidity risk. People are focused on individual investments and credit'.

David Viniar, CFO, Goldman Sachs (Reuters)

'We are realistic about the market challenges we face, but times of market dislocation also produce opportunities. And we will continue to take advantage of the most attractive of these as they arrive'.

Lloyd Blankfein, CEO, Goldman Sachs (MarketWatch)

'Goldman earnings, not surprisingly, really stand out and shine relative to others. It's really hard to find anything disappointing, to be candid'.

Lauren Smith, analyst, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (The New York Times)

'How did they manage through this difficult period with so little in markdowns ? Everyone else is kind of opening up the kimono and giving us a lot more exposure than Goldman.

Michael Hecht, analyst, Banc of America Securities (The New York Times)

Morgan Stanley

$1.03bn profit (down 60%)

'We took a contrarian view on some positions in the energy sector and it didn't work out for us. Our traders, who have a very good track record on this, frankly got the timing wrong'.

'The truth of the matter is this (is) pretty frigging brutal'.

Colm Kelleher, CFO, Morgan Stanley (The Wall Street Journal)

'For Morgan Stanley, one of the challenges in modelling the company is they've had some pretty erratic trading results over recent quarters. It's a little tough to get behind those trading results, and they seem to have been more negative than positive this quarter'.

Roger Freeman, analyst, Lehman Brothers (Bloomberg TV)

'We're expecting continued weakness across all their business units. It's going to take some time for these markets to really improve'.

William Fitzpatrick, equity analyst, Optique Capital Management (Bloomberg)

'If you have to go all the way to Spain to make the numbers (the firm took a one-off gain of $698m for the sale of its Spanish wealth management business in the quarter), it's not good. How many more rabbits do they have in their hat ? What's going to be the driver of earnings growth going forward ?'

Matt McCormick, equity analyst, Bahl & Gaynor Investment Councel (Reuters)

'Given the turbulent environment this quarter, we stayed close to the shore and continued strengthening the firm's capital and liquidity positions'.

John Mack, CEO, Morgan Stanley (The New York Times)

'Ugly'.

William Tanona, analyst, Goldman Sachs (The Wall Street Journal)

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