An upsized IPO offering that raised $700m+.
A first-day pop of 25 per cent at pixel time.
A return of more than 2.5 times Blackstone’s investment.
It’s certainly been a good week for the management of SeaWorld and its private-equity backers. But one new shareholder in the newly public aquatic theme-park group is already shaping up to be a nuisance. Read more
Further to our markets story from earlier this week (Investors ready for high-yield selloff), a massive $200m block of 5m shares in State Street’s SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond Fund ETF crossed the market this afternoon. According to one source, an ETF market-maker, the transaction came from one seller. (see graph/arrow). Read more
Just make sure you check their badges first. SEC people carry badges, right? …
SEC staff is issuing this updated Investor Alert because we are aware of continuing fraudulent solicitations that purport to be affiliated with or sponsored by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commission staff, as well as particular Commissioners (including a recent bogus email scam using the name of Commissioner Daniel Gallagher). Read more
High-speed trading critics are abuzz this morning as an apparent mini-flash crash took place in shares of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group. The car rental company fell as much as five per cent in matter of a minutes before recovering. Read more
Election watchers and political junkies who obsessively study every poll or other releases of electoral data must have had a moment of consternation this morning as they checked Intrade, the online prediction market.
Despite the widespread perception that President Barack Obama got the better of Mitt Romney in last night’s televised debate, the Intrade market pegging Romney’s chances of winning the election spiked from roughly 41 per cent to nearly 49 per cent in just a few minutes early Tuesday morning. The prediction market then swung back in Obama’s direction within minutes, and is now roughly where it started the day. Read more
