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SIFMA Reports US Equity Market Cap at $32.1 Trillion

Traders Magazine Online News, October 18, 2018

John D'Antona Jr.

The U.S. equity market, which is currently enjoying the longest bull run in its history, is valued at over $32 trillion dollars.

According to the latest SIFMA U.S. Capital Markets Deck research report, which is a state of the financial markets reports, reported that for 2017 total U.S. equity market capitalization - the total value of publicly traded domestic companies – was $32.1 trillion as of end-2017. In 2008 it was $11.6 trillion.

In its examination of the of the U.S. equities, SIFMA found that most of the equity issued in the U.S. is in the form of common stock, which represents ownership in a corporation, with the balance issued in preferred stock, which combines features of debt and equity.

Common stock can be divided further into Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) – the first sale of stock to the public and secondary offerings – every subsequent stock issuance. In 2017, stock offerings raised $220.1 billion, down 14.1% from $256.3 billion in 2008.

Over 150 companies conducted initial public offerings in the U.S. in 2017, raising $36.5 billion in new capital – creating new value for the companies, their employees and their investors.

In a further breakdown, U.S. equity market issuance broke down as follows: 70% Follow-ons, 18% IPOs and 12% Preferred Stock. The total of all issuance was $220.1 billion. As noted by SIFMA, IPOs can be divided into “true” IPOs, which are offered by companies going public, and IPOs offered by closed-end mutual funds, business development companies and special purpose acquisition companies. In 2017, $39.2 billion was raised in “true” IPOs, up 46.9% from $26.7 billion in 2008.

SIFMA also examined the effects of the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) on equity issuance. The law was intended to encourage funding of small businesses in the United States by extending the amount of time that certain new public companies have to begin compliance with registration requirements. JOBS Act IPOs are those of firms with total annual gross revenues of less than $1 billion in its most recently completed fiscal year and that issued less than $1 billion in nonconvertible debt securities over a rolling 36-months. JOBS Acts IPOs raised $28.8 billion dollars in 2017, up from $11.7 billion in 2016 and $10.6 billion in 2012.

The number of listed domestic companies fell in 2017 to 4,336, a 46.4% decline from the peak of 8,090 companies in 1996. In 2012 there were 4,102 companies listed.

SIFMA sourced Dealogic and Thomson Reuters as data providers for this report.

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