US IPO Weekly Winners & Losers

Markets rallied this week as trade tensions eased and hopes grew for a June rate cut.

The IPO Index capped off a four-day winning streak on Friday with a +7.7% gain for the week. The S&P 500 lagged with a +4.6% return.

Mega-cap tech drove the broader market rebound, while Pony AI led the IPO Index’s winners. The Chinese autonomous driving play rocketed +56.5% after revealing three new robotaxi models and cheaper production costs than Waymo. Delivery platform Instacart landed at the bottom, off a modest -2.5%.

For now, investors have dialed back fears of a full-blown economic meltdown. The VIX is back down to 25, and the IPO Index is back up to pre-‘Liberation Day’ levels. But markets are still choppy, the tariff saga isn’t over, and yes, IPOs are mostly on hold.

That said, a week or two of stability could get the deal market back into first gear.

Coming up, there’s one notable IPO on the calendar. Chinese insurance distributor Yuanbao (Nasdaq: YB) plans to raise $28 million next week at a $631 million market cap. Goldman and Citi lead. More than half of the deal was covered at the launch, similar to recent Chinese IPO Chagee.

The SPAC market is still grooving. New blank check filings and pricings have held a brisk pace over the past month. Merger activity has picked up.

Trading platform Webull (Nasdaq: BULL) was well-received when it began trading in mid-April, though it’s come down from the initial pop. Several $1+ billion merger agreements have been inked, led by Cantor Equity Partners (Nasdaq: CEP). Merging with newly-formed Twenty One Capital, it plans to create the “first Bitcoin-native public company,” whose goal is to maximize Bitcoin ownership per share. The deal values it at $3.6 billion.