(Bloomberg) -- After a politics-heavy couple of days — including JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon telling US Democrats to “grow up” — the focus shifted to finance on day four of the World Economic Forum and the mood so far has been positive. Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein expects dealmaking to pick up after a likely cut in interest rates, with others optimistic about profits and expansion. Highlights still to come Thursday include a panel on uniting European markets with European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing and a Bloomberg TV interview with UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Bloomberg’s team of reporters is bringing you the highlights of what’s happening on the ground. You can sign up for our daily newsletter here. And if you’re in Davos, don’t forget to drop by Bloomberg House. Register here. (Times CET) Talk of the Town Buoyant Bankers (12:30 p.m.) It’s been a morning of upbeat messaging from finance executives with Goldman Sachs’ Richard Gnodde talking expansion, Andrea Orcel saying he’s certain UniCredit will hit profitability goals and Carlyle’s Rubenstein — a Bloomberg contributor — predicting an M&A rebound. It might be tricky for new Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick to strike a similarly jaunty tone when he talks to Bloomberg later. His bank’s earnings disappointed investors on Tuesday after its traders fell short of expectations and executives indicated lower wealth-management margins may prove persistent. We’ll also be hearing from Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman and Bank of America boss Brian Moynihan. Will the merry sentiment continue? Read more about the financial mood here: Carlyle’s Rubenstein Sees M&A Pickup as Rates Drop in 2024 UniCredit CEO Certain of Hitting Targets Amid Global Turmoil Barclays CEO Defends Investment Bankers Ahead of Investor Day Uranium Stockpiles (10:45 a.m.) Back in the world of politics, it’s much less positive. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has continued accelerating its accumulation of uranium enriched close to weapons grade and now has enough of the material to produce several nuclear warheads. While the IAEA hasn’t detected any uranium diverted for weapons, the Persian Gulf nation’s stonewalling of investigators raises suspicions, Rafael Mariano Grossi told Bloomberg TV. “It is a very frustrating cycle,” he said. “We don’t understand why they don’t provide the necessary transparency.” Red Sea Turmoil (10:15 a.m.) The cost of insuring ships sailing through the Red Sea has gone up about tenfold, Marsh & McLennan CEO John Doyle said in a Bloomberg TV interview. Some shipowners aren’t willing to put their crew and their vessels through the vital waterway, he said. Doyle described the shipping sector globally as a major challenge at the moment for the clients that Marsh advises. Long Haul (9 a.m.) Speaking at the Ukraine breakfast discussion Thursday morning, Polish President Andrzej Duda warned Europe to be prepared to support Ukraine for a long fight against Russia, and that help should include confiscating Russian assets. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the country’s leaders were “encouraged and reassured” after meetings in Davos. He added that if frozen assets in the UK, Luxembourg and Switzerland were seized, there would be enough money to fix all of Ukraine’s damaged infrastructure. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron reiterated that UK is with Ukraine for as long as it takes and said he hopes EU and US will unlock funds soon. ‘Grow Up’ Democrats (9 a.m.) Dimon’s comments in a CNBC interview praising aspects of Donald Trump’s record in office will sting in the corridors of power in Washington and might reflect Wall Street’s openness to Trump 2.0. “Just take a step back, be honest,” Dimon said. “He’s kind of right about NATO, kind of right about immigration, he grew the economy quite well.” “He wasn’t wrong about some of these critical issues and that’s why they’re voting for him,” he added, calling for more respect for Trump voters and urging people to think more about why citizens support him. “I think this negative talk about MAGA is going to hurt Biden’s election campaign,” Dimon said. In Case You Missed It ECB officials who until recently had been wary of even discussing interest-rate cuts now look increasingly open to commencing them in June. French President Emmanuel Macron backed the issuance of joint European debt to pay for priorities including defense and technology in order to ensure Europe remains sovereign amid increasing competition with China and the US. There’s a repeated refrain from bankers in Davos this week, including the likes of JPMorgan’s Daniel Pinto and Standard Chartered’s Bill Winters: rein in your rate cut expectations. Too much debt — and the danger that global economies could take on even more of it — is troubling Davos participants confronting dangers posed by the year ahead. Davos After Dark A long queue of attendees waited for a spot at a McKinsey nightcap at the Ameron Hotel. Partners Sven Smit and Liz Hilton Segel enjoyed cocktails and food with global execs as a lively band dressed in silver and neon entertained the crowd, which included Unilever boss Hein Schumacher. The festivities aren’t all fun and games for some. Samir Mastaki and his partner Irina Biss waited two years to get a room at the Belvedere Hotel to host a party featuring minestrone and other delicacies in a bid to launch a business idea selling Italy-themed networking. It’s a big gamble. A room at the Belvedere — one of the top locations — can cost about 100,000 Swiss francs ($115,480) for just a few hours. And there’s competition everywhere. The couple attracted a relatively small crowd compared to a throbbing adjacent event hosted by tech company Hedera. While the entrepreneurs are hoping for big-name sponsors next year, the event on Wednesday only got minor supporters and guests were initially asked for about 5,000 francs for a seat. Many snuck in for free. AI Buzz High Stakes (2 p.m.) Sam Altman said that his dramatic and quickly-reversed firing from OpenAI was less nerve-wracking than the task of making artificial intelligence as capable as humans. Altman’s ouster by the board in November was “probably not the most stressful experience we ever face,” he said during a panel about technology in a turbulent world. The episode had taught the company to avoid letting “not-urgent problems” linger, the ChatGPT-maker’s chief executive officer and co-founder added. As the world gets closer to human-equivalent AI, “the stakes, the stress, the level of tension — that’s all going to go up,” Altman said. Accenture Hubs (8:30 a.m.) UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt is planning to meet with executives from technology giants like Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. in Davos later today as part of a push to spur investment in Britain’s tech sector. It sounds like Accenture’s Julie Sweet is already on board. “The UK is an absolutely critical market for us” and “we see the UK as being a very important place for us to invest over the long term,” Sweet, who leads the consultancy giant’s nearly 750,000-person workforce as chairman and chief executive officer, told Bloomberg TV. Read More: Accenture to Open 10 AI Hubs Globally, Including One in London One of the 10 generative AI “innovation hubs” Accenture plans to open globally will be in London, she added. Just months after shedding 19,000 workers, Sweet’s firm announced plans to double the number of staffers that specialize in AI to 80,000, part of a three-year, $3 billion investment in Accenture’s data and AI practice. In the House Green Disconnect (9 a.m.) There’s plenty of money to be made by investing in the green energy transition, and financial professionals who say otherwise aren’t paying attention to the facts, according to Brookfield Asset Management Chair Mark Carney. Read More: Carney Sees ‘Massive Disconnect’ in Green Finance Rhetoric During a conversation at Bloomberg House on Wednesday,