Stock Sales Suffer Worst First Quarter Since 2009 on Rates, SVB

US equity capital markets are having the slowest start to a year since 2009, and dealmakers fear a rebound is nowhere near.

Initial public offerings and secondary stock offerings bore the brunt of first-quarter recession concerns stemming from the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate-hike cycle and the flight to safety over fears about the banking system after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. This comes on the heels of a historic slowdown in 2022. 

“The big-picture question is: Is this more like 1998, when LTCM melted down and there was some global turmoil with a very temporary drop in IPO volume and a temporary drop in the stock market — or is this situation more like after the internet bubble burst and there were three years of low IPO activity continuing even after the stock market started going back up?” said Cordell Eminent Scholar Jay Ritter, who specializes in new listings.

Read more insights from Ritter in this story from Bloomberg.