Nasdaq CEO Expects IPO Market to Open Up Following the Shutdown

​Adena Friedman, the Chief Executive at the Nasdaq stock exchange indicates that market volatility is not necessarily to blame for the lack of IPOs at the start of 2019. She says interest to go public is still there, but the SEC, which ultimately approves a company’s IPO plans, is closed with the government shutdown. 

​Even though the government was closed for 35 days, companies were utilizing the downtime to finalize their plans. Nasdaq says that the number of listing applications are 35% higher than at this time last year. Now that the government will be reopened for at least three weeks, as of Friday, companies are expected to take advantage and go public as soon as possible.
 
"With the hope that the government does reopen in the coming days, weeks, then I think we will see that there is certainly less of a time window for these companies to go [public], but they are all ready to go," said Friedman on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.