On the tail end of a decisive week for Wall Street and the U.S. economy as a whole, mergers and acquisitions and private equity practice leaders are feeling cautiously optimistic as they predict slower but sustained demand in the second half of 2022.

The week could have gone worse, the partners said on Friday, despite the Department of Commerce reporting a second consecutive quarter of declining gross domestic product and the Federal Reserve announcing another 0.75% interest rate hike, not to mention mixed earnings reports from the country’s largest corporations.