Wall Street hardly ended last year with a bang. But given the challenges facing the other major business lines of the biggest banks, from lending to wealth management, trading and investment banking might prove to be their best bet in 2024.

Across the five biggest Wall Street megabanks, investment-banking fees in the fourth quarter—from issuance of stocks and bonds, plus advising on mergers and acquisitions—were up about 3% year-over-year. The “green shoots” that were talked up after third-quarter results remain scarce, as the market enters a year of uncertainty for politics, interest rates and economic growth.