Wall Street spreads new-year cheer with upbeat Davos outlook

After a year that brought a surprise surge in interest rates, the biggest stock drop since 2008 and a halt to major deals, many finance executives lined up at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting to say they now see reasons to be upbeat.

Bankers from JPMorgan Chase’s Mary Erdoes to Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman and Citigroup’s Jane Fraser were among those identifying an easing of inflation and the reopening of China as grounds for cautious optimism at this week’s gathering in the Swiss ski resort of Davos…