Wall Street’s Cloudy Quarter Has Some Rays of Sunshine

Wall Street hardly ended final yr with a bang. But given the challenges dealing with the opposite main enterprise traces of the most important banks, from lending to wealth administration, buying and selling and funding banking may show to be their greatest guess in 2024.

Across the 5 largest Wall Street megabanks, investment-banking charges within the fourth quarter—from issuance of shares and bonds, plus advising on mergers and acquisitions—have been up about 3% year-over-year. The “green shoots” that have been talked up after third-quarter outcomes stay scarce, because the market enters a yr of uncertainty for politics, rates of interest and financial progress.