A crop of IPOs are coming, starting with chip designer Arm, which is making its debut on Thursday. It’s another sign of confidence in markets — and the U.S. economy.
Here’s another sign of growing confidence in the stock market and the broader U.S. economy: Companies from Birkenstock to Instacart are getting ready to go public through IPOs after a long lull in high-profile listings.
First up is chip designer Arm Holdings, which is set to make its debut on the Nasdaq on Thursday. It priced its shares at $51 each, which would value the company at almost $55 billion.
Arm may not be a household name, but it’s a multi-billion-dollar tech company that designs many of the high-end microchips that power smart phones and supercomputers.
Wall Street hopes Arm will revive the market for initial public offerings — often seen as a key gauge of confidence in markets.
IPOs dried up last year, amid fears the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest hikes would spark a recession
And the drought has continued in 2023. There have been just 17 new listings on the New York Stock Exchange, for example. Last year, there were 24. In 2021, there were almost 300.
Other companies are expected to follow in Arm’s footsteps with public listings, including the grocery delivery company Instacart and the German sandal maker Birkenstock.Why is a revival in IPOs important?
A revival in IPOs is a clear indication that investors are growing confident about the market’s prospects.
Since January, stocks have been on a tear. The broad-based S&P 500 is up more than 15% year to date, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq has risen by more than 30%.
