It's cloudy, it's sunny
Stock markets had a bit of a wobble on Monday. After weeks of serene (mostly upward) sailing, US equities fell 1.6% (S&P 500 index) and European equities (STOXX 600 index) dropped more than 2% — their worst day of the year so far.
Headlines varied across the world as to what was to blame for the fall. Some blamed the surge in the Delta variant of COVID. Others blamed rising worries of inflation. Whatever it actually was that drove investors to sell on Monday, they had clearly forgotten it all by Tuesday as most markets around the world bounced back and resumed their relentless march upward.
Stranger than fiction
If you went back in time to the start of 2020 and told a stranger that US stocks would go up almost 35% over the next 18 months — they'd probably believe you. They probably wouldn't believe that sandwiched in between that time was a global pandemic, a recession and unemployment claims that were truly off the charts.
But that is of course what's happened.
Vaccine rollouts, a rebound in economic growth from the shortest recession in history and an enormous amount of stimulus from governments have all contributed to the tremendous run in equity markets this year — and private companies are keen to cash in while it's sunny. The flurry of IPOs just keeps coming. Trading app Robinhood, a bowling alley operator, food group Dole, elite membership club Soho House and many, many more companies are set to go public.
