On Friday, Asia-Pacific markets declined as investors braced for key economic figures. They are looking forward to the data that will come in over the next days. The U.S. markets didn’t significantly shy away from this downturn. Futures reflected a bearish outlook as traders expected bad news with the release of key jobs report.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index declined by 1.07%, to close at 24,507.81. This decrease demonstrates investor’s risk-averse behaviors in the face of increasing global economic turmoil. For the same period, the CSI 300 index of mainland China shares dropped 0.51%, to end at 4,045.93. That trend carried over to India, with the Nifty 50, a broad benchmark for 50 large cap stocks, declining 0.48%. The broader BSE Sensex index fell by 0.34%.
It wasn’t a whole lot better here in the United States either. The price-weighted 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by almost 329.7 points, or about 0.7%. The S&P 500 finished Thursday down 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite finished the day a tad negative. Futures tied to these indices mirrored that bullish mood. The major broad market index futures were down 0.83%, and the futures for the optionable Nasdaq 100 were even steeper, down 0.99%. In other markets, futures tied to the Dow were down by 339 points, or 0.77%.
Despite the USD bullishness, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 benchmark struggled, dropping by 0.92% to close at 8,662. Japan’s Nikkei 225 benchmark lost ground, the index closing the day 0.66% lower at 40,799.60. SHOCK WAVE South Korea’s Kospi index plunged, plunging shoulder-down 3.88% to end at 3,119.41. Even worse was the small-cap Kosdaq, which fell 4.03% to 772.79.
Provided on this ominous backdrop of a grizzly stock market index, IPOs have proven largely unfazed in 2023 thus far. So far in 2023, eighteen companies still have had their valuations double from their IPO prices. Of these, seven are located in the United States. In fact, Renaissance Capital reports that 123 IPOs are priced in for the year to come.
Overall IPO activity this year has brought in $19.7 billion in proceeds. That’s more than a 15% drop compared to the same time last year. That’s a positive sign that despite some high-profile successful IPOs, broader market sentiment could be pushing down the number of investors willing to participate.