Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: The outlook for corporates gets harder, American Airlines and Pepsi
Speaker 2: joining a growing list of companies trimming or pulling forecast
Speaker 2: you to trade uncertainty, NASDAK hoping to provide stability in
Speaker 2: this volatile environment, and the nast next Sea. Dana Friedman
Speaker 2: joined us now for more. Diana, good morning, good to
Speaker 2: see you.
Speaker 3: It's great to see you, great to be here.
Speaker 2: Can you describe the last month for us if you can,
Speaker 2: just how busy have things been described to volume, the
Speaker 2: activity going through your business?
Speaker 3: Well, thanks, thanks for having me.
Speaker 4: First of all, we just announced earnings yesterday, so I
Speaker 4: think that shows a little bit of what.
Speaker 3: We've been what we've been working with.
Speaker 4: We had twelve and a half percent revenue growth. We
Speaker 4: had double digit growth in each of our three divisions,
Speaker 4: and a couple of highlights.
Speaker 3: One is within.
Speaker 4: Our Capital Axis Platforms division, our index business grew twenty
Speaker 4: six percent in the first.
Speaker 3: Quarter because of inflows.
Speaker 4: We had twenty seven billion dollars of inflows in the quarter.
Speaker 4: Very strong futures volumes as well in our NAS like
Speaker 4: one hundred franchise. And then we look at our Fintech
Speaker 4: division that grew ten percent, and one of the highlights
Speaker 4: there is our anti financial crime business grew twenty one percent,
Speaker 4: and that's an important key grower for US. And then
Speaker 4: within our market services division, which is our trading business,
Speaker 4: that grew nineteen percent in the first quarter because of
Speaker 4: record volumes in the first quarter, and we continue to
Speaker 4: see those volumes persist and actually grow into April. The
Speaker 4: first ten days of April, we had five of the
Speaker 4: top six trading days ever in US equities, four of
Speaker 4: the top six trading days ever in options, and in
Speaker 4: one of the days, like we also measured message traffic
Speaker 4: because that's how how many messages our systems handling during
Speaker 4: a given day. On the peak day, which was April seventh,
Speaker 4: we had five hundred and fifty billion messages flow through
Speaker 4: our systems on that single day. So it has been
Speaker 4: an incredible period of time from a trading perspective.
Speaker 3: And the one thing.
Speaker 4: To note, because we talked about this earlier, you know,
Speaker 4: you don't get necessarily credit for this, but the fact
Speaker 4: is that the plumbing within the markets, all of the
Speaker 4: markets has done really, really well, hyper resilient. I think
Speaker 4: we've all been able to manage this volume extraordinarily. Well,
Speaker 4: we're very proud of that at NASAC, and I can
Speaker 4: tell you that our markets have done quite well in
Speaker 4: this period of heightened volatility.
Speaker 2: We don't thank you when it goes right, but we'd
Speaker 2: be very quick to criticize you when it goes wrong.
Speaker 2: That's for sure. You've handled a lot of volume volatility good.
Speaker 2: When does volatility become bad?
Speaker 4: Well, I think the one thing to recognize is volatility
Speaker 4: in short term volatility.
Speaker 3: That then can resolve itself.
Speaker 4: I think that's something that we've seen, frankly multiple.
Speaker 3: Times over the last five years.
Speaker 4: I think the concern is, of course, is if we
Speaker 4: cannot have some certainty in the markets. You know, investors
Speaker 4: like certainty, and right now it's a very uncertain environment,
Speaker 4: so they tend to take a risk off and attitude
Speaker 4: about that. And as we know, we are hoping to
Speaker 4: see more companies go public this year.
Speaker 3: We did have forty five.
Speaker 4: IPOs in the first quarter, raising five billion dollars. One
Speaker 4: little side fact also, as we had seven companies switched
Speaker 4: from New York to NASACK in the first quarter, and
Speaker 4: we crossed three trillion dollar threshold of companies that have
Speaker 4: switched to NASAK since we starter switch program twenty years ago.
Speaker 4: But I also would say though we have a lot
Speaker 4: of companies that are looking to go public this year,
Speaker 4: and we and right now, of course, investors are not
Speaker 4: really in a mode of underwriting a lot of risks,
Speaker 4: so we're seeing them take a weight and see attitude
Speaker 4: in terms of how to tap the public markets and
Speaker 4: when to tap the public markets this year.
Speaker 5: That was a very subtle but well placed a shot
Speaker 5: over at the New York's Act Exchange.
Speaker 3: I'm sure that they will be listening.
Speaker 5: I am curious about what that pipeline looks like now
Speaker 5: and how much smaller it is now in terms of
Speaker 5: IPOs than it was earlier in the year. You know,
Speaker 5: there's this big question how much of deal has been
Speaker 5: sort of put on hold and how much have they
Speaker 5: just been scrapped altogether.
Speaker 3: Do you have a sense of that. I think there
Speaker 3: are more being put on hold.
Speaker 4: I mean, we have not seen companies something to decide
Speaker 4: they're not going to go public.
Speaker 3: It's really a matter of they've gotten themselves.
Speaker 4: Ready, They've gotten approval, all the approvals they need. It's
Speaker 4: really now a matter of just having a weight and
Speaker 4: see attitude, and they should be, you know, in terms
Speaker 4: of thinking about how can they maximize value for their shareholders,
Speaker 4: how can they make sure that they're entering the markets
Speaker 4: in an environment that's well welcoming, and that could be
Speaker 4: you could find windows and pockets of time throughout the
Speaker 4: year to be able to do that, and we did,
Speaker 4: as I said, still have forty five IPOs in the
Speaker 4: first quarter. So it wasn't like the markets are shut.
Speaker 4: It's just a matter of finding those windows of opportunity
Speaker 4: within a more volatile environment.
Speaker 5: Do you see companies trying to decide are having a
Speaker 5: harder time deciding whether to IPO in New York or
Speaker 5: in the United States and the deepest markets of the
Speaker 5: world versus somewhere else base the turmoil that we've seen.
Speaker 4: Well, we are really the home to global companies as
Speaker 4: well as American companies. The conversations continue to be very constructive, robust,
Speaker 4: they're they're very they're very interested in coming and tapping
Speaker 4: the American investor and frankly the global investor base.
Speaker 3: I mean the United States.
Speaker 4: We are the most liquid markets in the world, We
Speaker 4: have the most the most variety of investors, we have
Speaker 4: the deepest pools of liquidity. I think those things are,
Speaker 4: you know, constant attractions. In terms of companies who want
Speaker 4: to go public again.
Speaker 3: It's really more a matter of time.
Speaker 4: I mean that it's more a matter of when than
Speaker 4: if they want to come and tap the public markets
Speaker 4: in the United States.
Speaker 1: I was here during Trump's inauguration while you were speaking
Speaker 1: to John and Lisa over in Davos, and you are
Speaker 1: very constructive on the incoming administration when it came to
Speaker 1: the excitement around IPOs, also deregulation. You're pushing for this
Speaker 1: regulation overhaul. Are you seeing what you were expecting back
Speaker 1: in Davos from this administration now in their first one
Speaker 1: hundred days.
Speaker 4: From a regulatory perspective, we are very excited about the
Speaker 4: fact that we can work constructively with the regulators that
Speaker 4: are coming into with the positions. With Chair Atkins coming
Speaker 4: into the SEC, he has deep understanding of the markets.
Speaker 4: He has a deep understanding of US capital markets and
Speaker 4: also the need for companies to have a good public
Speaker 4: company experience and how important that is in terms of
Speaker 4: giving citizens access to the growth of our economy. So
Speaker 4: we are looking forward to engaging with him. We just
Speaker 4: put out a white paper on the need for reform
Speaker 4: in the regulatory landscape for public companies to have to
Speaker 4: be able to have a life as a public company,
Speaker 4: not have it be oh gosh moment, but more I
Speaker 4: can't wait moment, And so I think that that's something that.
Speaker 3: We're really looking forward to engaging.
Speaker 1: Chair Atkins on how big is the tone shift from
Speaker 1: the Biden administration and Gary Gensler to Chair Atkins.
Speaker 4: Well, he just came into office, so we are going
Speaker 4: to introduce ourselves to him. We actually do know him
Speaker 4: from when he was a commissioner many years ago, but
Speaker 4: reintroduce ourselves to him, and we'll look forward to engaging
Speaker 4: with him as he gets going.
Speaker 3: In his new seat.
Speaker 2: You've been through a lot of different market right, James,
Speaker 2: How would you describe this one? How unique is it?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 4: I have actually been part of many, many market events.
Speaker 3: I've been at NASSAC started a Nazek.
Speaker 4: Thirty two years ago, so I've seen a lot and
Speaker 4: this is every single one of them is different. I
Speaker 4: have to say, there's no two situations where you see
Speaker 4: a lot of volatility that are exactly the same in
Speaker 4: terms of the causes of volatility. What we've seen in
Speaker 4: terms of the reactions from investors is pretty consistent. You know,
Speaker 4: when they know the thing, as I mentioned before, is
Speaker 4: that they the thing that they like the least is uncertainty.
Speaker 4: And in any period of time where you suddenly have
Speaker 4: a big moment of uncertainty, they take the same attitude,
Speaker 4: which is a risk off attitude. I'm going to take
Speaker 4: take someone positions out of the market. I'm going to
Speaker 4: sit and wait and understand what's happening, and then I'm
Speaker 4: going to re engage in.
Speaker 3: A smart way.
Speaker 4: That's a very consistent reaction, but the causes of every
Speaker 4: single period of market relativity have been different.
Speaker 3: Actually over the last thirty two years.
Speaker 2: Sunny fils unique this moment, that's for sure. Danta, thanks
Speaker 2: for dropping by, Thanks you for the time, Thanks for.
Speaker 3: Being with us.
Speaker 2: A data freightman.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 2: The chair and CEO of Nasdaq