Indiana Trust Wealth Management
Investment Advisory Services
by Clayton T. Bill, CFA
Vice President, Director of Investment Advisory Services

  • The U.S. equity market, represented by the S&P 500 index, fell 2.6% this week.
  • While all eyes are on the SpaceX IPO, Alphabet (Google) announced this week its plans for the largest public equity issuance of all time. This move carries mixed messages for the market.

Financial headlines have been dominated by the news of the impending SpaceX initial public offering (IPO) of stock. The size of the issuance and the personalities involved have garnered a lot of attention. Some investors wonder how they can participate in the IPO. Others wonder how they can avoid it.

There are broadly two ways of thinking about SpaceX stock. First, as a short-term trade, some suggest that it looks attractive because the name will be immediately included in most major indexes. Funds tracking those indexes will be compelled to buy it, creating somewhat-artificial initial demand for a limited supply – only 5% of the company’s equity is planned to be listed.

Others contend that there are problematic aspects of the stock as a long-term investment. The valuation at which SpaceX is asking the market to pay will be around 70x sales, or about 50% above the most expensive stock in the entire S&P 500. So, it looks a touch pricey. Should growth not pan out, well, cue the endless “SpaceX Returns to Earth”-themed headlines.

A less-heralded issuer of stock surprisingly announced plans to come to the market this week: Alphabet (better known as Google). Alphabet is planning the biggest equity sale ever, bigger than SpaceX’s IPO, about $80 billion worth of stock. Last year, Alphabet repurchased roughly $45 billion in stock, so the net swing will be over $100 billion in equity supply from one company.

This is viewed as good news for those worried about the AI buildout, as Alphabet’s move clears the path for more capital expenditures on semiconductors and other AI supplier names. On the less-good news side, Alphabet’s management clearly views its stock as richly valued. Its cost of equity financing is cheap and thus attractive, based on that logic. Alphabet’s move carries a mixed message for equity investors.

It is shaping up to be quite a year in the US equity market.

__________

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES: All info contained herein is solely for general informational purposes. It does not take into account all the circumstances of each investor and is not to be construed as legal, accounting, investment, or other professional advice. The author(s) and publisher, accordingly, assume no liability whatsoever in connection with the use of this material or action taken in reliance thereon. All reasonable efforts have been made to ensure this material is correct at the time of publication.  Copyright Indiana Trust Wealth Management 2026.