Morgan Stanley swung to a fourth-quarter loss as the bank booked a hefty loss related to the settlement of a long-running legal clash and weaker performance in its institutional securities business.

Morgan Stanley's results on Thursday offer the final word on a fourth quarter that was expectedly weak for the nation's largest financial institutions. Headaches for Wall Street stretched into the latter half of the year as choppy markets again put a damper on deal making and challenged trading results.