Companies are more willing to take on debt when the economy's strong and interest rates are going down.

So you're seeing a lot of debt underwriting revenue.

Goldman Sach's debt underwriting revenue was up 46%.

So you're seeing a lot of positive tailwinds.

And if the Fed keeps cutting rates, that could get even better.

I'm Mary Long, and that's Motley Fool contributor Matt Frankel.

As the year comes to a close, we're rounding up a number of analysts to look back on key industries and storylines from 2024.

This week, Matt joins Ricky Mulvey to take a look at some of the big

stories coming out of the financial sector. They also discuss PayPal's new narrative,

questions for the CEO of a company once likened to Berkshire Hathaway, and why Wall

Streets warmed up to toast. So, Matt, as we look back on the year that was, what are your top financial headlines for 2024?

Well, obviously, number one is that financial stocks have done really, really well.

It doesn't seem like the banking crisis of mid-20203 was that long ago.

But I mean, just to look at some of these numbers, the S&P's up 30% year-to-date. The worst performing bank stock on my radar is Bank of

America, and that's up 40%. J.P. Morgan Chase is up 47. Goldman Sachs is up 57% just year-to-date.

And there are some good reasons for that. This is really what stood out

to me. One, the consumer has been a lot more resilient than a lot of experts had thought.

If you remember about a year ago, when default started spiking after the post-COVID, like,

you know, loan postponements and stuff like that. We started seeing consumer default spike.

There was a worry that, you know, we were going to go into a recession. People weren't going to

be able to pay their bills, et cetera, et cetera. That didn't end up happening. In just one example,

Bank of America, the default, the net charge off rate has been, you know, flat for the past

...