Demonstrators were camped outside Goldman Sachs’ headquarters in Lower Manhattan for a second day yesterday, as the investment bank unveiled its fourth-quarter earnings. Some were dressed in monster masks, protesting the slew of appointments of senior Goldman people to the new government of Donald Trump — in spite of his campaign-trail pledge to “drain the swamp.”

But inside the bank, things are looking better than they have done in a while. Return on equity edged up to 11.4 per cent on an annualised basis, marking the second quarter in a row of returns above the roughly 10 per cent threshold between creating and destroying value for shareholders.

But it is not just Goldman. All over Wall Street, animal spirits are beginning to return, helped by promises of more vigorous growth under Mr Trump, and prospects of regulatory relief after years of intense oversight and ever-tougher standards on capital and liquidity.