NEW YORK (AP) — Morgan Stanley said Thursday that its corporate clients are ready to do business — but they're a little unnerved by the impending fiscal crisis.

The bank reported higher revenue and net income for the third quarter after stripping out an accounting charge, helped by a jump in underwriting and trading bonds. Executives described the markets as calm, especially compared to the chaos of a year ago, when the third quarter was rocked by a downgrade of the U.S. government's debt, a budget standoff in Congress and the European debt crisis.

But businesses aren't going full bore on deal-making, if Morgan Stanley's results are any indication. Revenue that the bank made from advising companies on mergers, acquisitions and other strategy fell. So did revenue from underwriting stock offerings, as well as revenue from trading stocks on behalf of clients.