STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with job cuts on Wall Street.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: The investment bank Morgan Stanley has announced plans to shed 1,600 jobs - about half of those cuts here in the United States. The layoffs are said to target senior employees, management and executives - a move seen as aimed at cutting costs and boosting equity returns for the banks' investors. Those returns are still down about a quarter from the levels seen before the 2008 financial crisis.