SPAC: Smack Down

Posted on February 21, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA

By Staff Reporters

***

***

2023 was a bad year for SPACs. 2024 may be even tougher, if the SEC has anything to say about it. Last week, the agency approved rules intended to increase investor protections around SPACs and bring their treatment more in line with that of traditional IPOs.

Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are companies that go public through IPOs with the intent of merging with or acquiring private companies, known as target companies. The target companies can then be publicly listed without having to go through an IPO. SPACs, which allow companies to go public more quickly than ordinary IPOs, became popular in 2020 and 2021. But the “SPAC boom” ended in 2022 as the market worsened, and the SEC first proposed the tighter regulations it just released. In 2023, only 31 SPACs went public, compared with 613 in 2021.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource

SEC Chair Gary Gensler, a longtime critic of SPACs, hailed the new regulations as a means of safeguarding investors.

“Just because a company uses an alternative method to go public does not mean that its investors are any less deserving of time-tested investor protections,” he said in a statement.

***

***
COMMENTS APPRECIATED

Thank You

***

Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Alternative Investments, Funding Basics, Investing | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

DAILY UPDATE: Nvidia Stock Down as Markets Extend Losses

Posted on February 21, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA

By Staff Reporters

***

***

Stocks fell to start the week as investors awaited Nvidia’s big earnings report today. Recent earnings for tech companies in the so-called Magnificent Seven have been a mixed bag, but as a group, they have never been stronger. Meanwhile, Intuitive Machines’s stock zoomed as its pilot less spacecraft remained on track to touch down on the lunar surface Thursday.

Here’s where the major benchmarks ended:

  • The S&P 500® index (SPX) fell 30.06 points (0.6%) to 4,975.51; the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 64.19 points (0.2%) to 38,563.80; the NASDAQ Composite declined 144.87 points (0.9%) to 15,630.78.
  • The 10-year Treasury note yield (TNX) fell about 2 basis points to 4.275%.
  • The CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX) rose 0.71 to 15.42.

Nvidia shares fell 4.4%, weakness that helped drag down shares of other chip makers and contributed to a drop of 1.6% in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX), which ended near a two-week low. Energy shares also took pressure as WTI crude oil futures (/CL) sank 1.6%. Small caps were also soft, as the Russell 2000® Index (RUT) dropped 1.4%.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource

COMMENTS APPRECIATED

Thank You

***

***

Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Breaking News, Drugs and Pharma, Ethics, Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Health Economics, Health Insurance, Healthcare Finance, Investing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

PODCAST: Ideal Employee Health Plan

Posted on February 21, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA

By Eric Bricker MD

***

COMMENTS APPRECIATED

Thank You

***

***

Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Experts Invited, Health Economics, Health Insurance, Health Law & Policy, Op-Editorials, Videos | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »