But as Wall Street hopes for a warm embrace from the former secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton must grapple with a populist surge coursing through politics, on both the right and the left…

“I think there’s a potential window for Democrats to come back, but if it is one wing of the party pushing the populist line — anti-big banks, punishing people whether or not they had anything to do with the crisis — they’ll lock this crowd into a Republican alternative,” said Bill Daley, a former chief of staff to Mr. Obama and commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton who is now a hedge fund executive.

During her 2008 primary campaign against Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton emphasized her husband’s economic record. But running on the 1990s will not work in 2016, Mr. Daley suggested. “She has to figure out where she is going forward,” Mr. Daley said.