While most of us struggled in Q1, there was one market that set records.
I’m talking about corporate M&A.
Because in Q1 alone there were 22 deals of $10 billion or more… the highest since 2015 and 29% higher in total deal value than last year.
Capped off on Monday with Unilever agreeing to buy spice giant McCormick in a $65 billion transaction.
Plus there are still a number of deals in the works, with Absolut-Pernod looking to merge with Brown Forman, who make Jack Daniel’s… as well as a seperate deal for Fertitta Entertainment to buy Caeser’s. Both of which would be $5 billion+ deals
And all of this is good news for us
Because a healthy M&A market shows that funds haven’t completely dried up on Wall Street.
And when companies are willing to commit billions of dollars to long term bets… that shows that they aren’t in meltdown panic mode… far from it.
Which likely means we will still see the planned mega IPOs of SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI. Those won’t happen without a relatively healthy capital market.
And while I get there are many reasons to be bearish right now, I tend to lean a little more bullish than most.
Because markets tend to price in peak fear when the underlying truth a lot more nuanced