The initial public offerings from Anthropic, Open AI and SpaceX Standard Chartered are likely to weigh on markets in the near term, according to Steve Brice, global chief investment officer of wealth solutions at Standard Chartered. “There’s going to be some digestion challenges of these IPOs coming through the market, and some of the broadening out usually does take place well, but it doesn’t necessarily happen in a totally smooth fashion,” he said on CNBC’s “Access Middle East” program on Tuesday, adding that he isn’t “super, super bullish at this point.” “We could see some weakness at some point over the summer months, and maybe that would fit into what’s happening in the Middle East as well,” he said, but over the longer term “that’s actually probably a good buying opportunity.” While market sentiment may be propped up by expectations that the upcoming U.S. market labor data will be relatively strong, that strength give way to significant weakness if the Strait of Hormuz isn’t open by the end of summer, Brice said. Oil prices have seen a sharp rise as the Trump administration blockades Iranian ports, while the Strait has been effectively closed by Tehran. “Inventories are being run down at a rapid pace, not just obviously in physical crude, but also across petrochemicals or urea and different inputs into the production cycle around the world,” Brice said.
