Morgan Stanley to write down $2.5 billion

This is off The New York Times:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Morgan Stanley said Wednesday its fourth-quarter profit will be reduced by $2.5 billion in write-downs related to the ongoing credit crisis, making it the latest Wall Street investment house to admit massive losses.

The nation's No. 2 investment bank, whose shares have sagged this week on speculation it might announce a sizable write-off, said it could lose up to $6 billion if all subprime mortgage-related investments were to go bad.

So far this year, financial institutions have already suffered an estimated $55 billion of losses following a sharp increase in U.S. mortgage defaults that caused investors to avoid any securities deemed too risky.

Losses at Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup Inc. caused the ouster of both their chief executives, and analysts predict more pain is in store for the financial sector.

So Morgan Stanley is taking a $2.5 billion dollar write-down due to the mortgage mess, and the losses could go as high as $6 billion. I wonder what financial institution will be next to report losses in the mortgage meltdown?