WSJ What’s News - Why Retail Investors Are Getting Larger Portions of IPO Shares

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

P.M. Edition for Sept. 12. After Figma, Circle and Bullish were plagued by big price jumps on their recent first trading days, companies making their stock market debuts this week have opted for a new strategy: creating bigger share allotments for retail investors. WSJ capital markets reporter Corrie Driebusch discusses how it works. Plus, America’s soy farmers are beginning to harvest the tens of millions of tons of crop expected for this season, but China, the world’s biggest buyer of soy, doesn’t want any. We hear from Patrick Thomas, who covers agriculture for the Journal, about why, and what that means for farmers. And authorities have taken into custody 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who is suspected of the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're with Amex Platinum, you get access to exclusive dining experiences and an annual travel credit. So the best tapas in town might be in a new town altogether. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca. Authorities name the suspect for the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk. Plus, why companies are allocating larger portions of IPO shares to retail investors.

And American soybean farmers are caught in the middle of the trade war with China. During the first Trump trade war, U.S. farmers were estimated to lose somewhere around the neighborhood of over $20 billion. And the large part of that was soybean farmers. And we're kind of headed for that again today. It's Friday, September 12th. I'm Alex O'Soula for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

Authorities say they have taken 22-year-old Tyler Robinson into custody for the shooting of Charlie Kirk, who is killed on Wednesday while on stage at Utah Valley University. Robinson, who is from Utah, attended the university for one semester in 2021, the college confirmed. He has in the past registered as a nonpartisan voter in Utah, while his parents are registered as Republicans. Speaking at a press conference, Utah Governor Spencer Cox described what is known about the suspect. The investigators interviewed a family member of Robinson who stated that Robinson had become more political in recent years. The family member referenced a recent incident in which Robinson came to

dinner prior to September 10th. And in the conversation with another family member, Robinson mentioned Charlie Kirk was coming to UVU. They talked about why they didn't like him and the viewpoints that he had. The family member also stated that Kirk was full of hate and spreading hate. Cox said that law enforcement believed that Robinson acted alone, but added that the investigation is ongoing. He also said that investigators believe Robinson was active on messaging platform discord, where he allegedly posted about engraving bullets and needing to retrieve a rifle from a drop point. In an interview on Fox News this morning, President Trump said that he wants the perpetrator to get the death penalty if found guilty for the killing. In the same interview,

Trump said that he plans to deploy National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee, calling the city, quote, deeply troubled. It's part of a crackdown on crime across the country, following the Trump administration's intervention in Washington, D.C. The office of Memphis Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The Memphis Police Department recently reported that overall crime had fallen to a 25-year low, with the number of murders dropping to a six-year low, but rates remain among the highest in the country. On Sunday, we'll be talking a lot more about President Trump's plans and deployment of the National Guard to U.S. cities. We discuss the nation's mixed reactions and where it could go from here.

That's in What's New Sunday. Americans' confidence in the economy is waning, while long-term inflation expectations have risen. That's according to a preliminary September estimate from the University of Michigan. The survey's confidence index declined to 55.4, from 58.2 in August, lower than economists expected. Consumers are frustrated by both sticky inflation and a slowing labor market. A record-breaking week. ended with the NASDAQ on top, even as major U.S. indexes ended the day mixed. The Dow fell about 0.6% and the S&P 500 dipped a fifth of a percent. The NASDAQ added about 0.4%, closing at

another record high. In the past few months, we've talked about companies such as Circle, Figma, and Bullish that have made their stock market debut, only to have big price jumps on their first trading days. That sounds like it would be good, but often means much. money was left on the table. Companies going public this week have so far seen less of that volatility, in part because of a particular strategy, letting in more individual investors from the beginning. I'm joined now by Corey Dreebush, who covers capital markets for the Wall Street Journal. Corey, what went wrong with the IPO of companies like Circle, Figma, and Bullish? So on the outside, it looks like, oh, this should have been a great IPO. The stocks were priced,

often above expectations, and then they traded up the first day of trading. You say, that sounds great, but the amount they traded up was so substantial that it actually, you cross over from being great to being a negative pretty fast. Figma, for example, rose 250% when it went public in July. The whole point of an IPO is you're picking and oftentimes hand-selecting the exact fund manager. you want to own shares of your company for the long term. And when a stock triples on its first day of trading or more, those fund managers have a fiduciary duty to their investor base

to sell the stock and lock in some of those gains. So then you're losing out on these long-term investors and you don't even know who owns your stock anymore. This week we've seen a few different companies make their stock market debut. We've seen by now pay later company Klarna, blockchain lender figure technology. And, of course, today, Crypto Exchange, Gemini Space Station, is making a stock market debut. How did these companies approach their IPO differently than Circle Figma bullish?

We heard that Klarna was selling more shares than traditional to retail investors in the IPO. We also are reporting sure that Gemini, the plan, was to sell up to 30% of shares of the IPO to retail investors, which is a huge number when you think that usually between around 5 to 7% go to retail investors. Figure also what we've been told sold more than traditional to retail investors in its IPO. Is there anything else that's making these IPOs pop a little bit less this week? Yeah, people close to these deals have pointed out that remember when we spoke about how Figma, Circle, and Bullish all soared in their stock market debuts. Well, those three company stocks have really come down a bunch since then. And that has, in many ways, potentially lessened the exuberance maybe for buying at the open by retail investors.

That was WSJ reporter, Corey Dreebush. Coming up, the biggest buyer of America's tens of millions of tons of soybeans isn't buying any. We'll get into why after the break. Did you lock the front door? Check. Close the garage door? Yep. Installed window sensors, smoke sensors, and HD cameras with night vision?

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to learn more. Conditions apply. In just a few weeks, U.S. farmers will begin harvesting tens of millions of tons of soybeans. But they have a big problem on their hands. The world's biggest buyer doesn't want any. Over the years, China has become one of the biggest buyers of American agricultural products, including soybeans. But now, soy has emerged as a potent weapon that Beijing is wielding in its trade fight, with Washington. Patrick Thomas covers agriculture for the journal and is here now with more. Patrick, what's going on? Why isn't China buying any U.S. soy? The upshot is this is in retaliation for the trade war. This is China's tool to get back at the U.S. and at the U.S. farmer.

The farmer is basically caught in the middle of the trade war between Washington and Beijing, and about a quarter of all American soybeans historically have ended up going to China. So what China can do is not take those imports, and that leaves a ton of soybeans just left in the market stuck in U.S. storage, and that pressures the price. It hurts the farmer's income, and that gets right at their pocketbook. For China, if they aren't getting soybeans from the U.S., where are they getting it? They've tried to produce more soybeans in China. That's been a tall task for them over the years. So basically, they're trying to cut the U.S. out with rivals in South America. They have been turning to Brazil, and this was something that really started to happen under Trump 1.0 in his first administration, the first time we had a trade war with the U.S. and China. They built up infrastructure in Brazil investments in their supply chain. And basically, Brazil last year provided 70 percent of China's soy imports, which is double the share from about 15 years ago.

You mentioned that this puts U.S. farmers in the middle. What are they doing about it? We've built our farm industrial complex around soybeans in the last 20 years and shipping it out of the Pacific Northwest ports. So all that to say is there's a lot of money riding on the success of soybeans. So what farmers can do is they're cutting back on equipment, they're cutting back just on general purchases, they're trying to switch more acres to corn. But by and large, there's not a ton that farmers can do except hope that they come to a resolution. Today, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is leaving for Europe, where he will continue trade negotiations with the Chinese.

Is there hope for a resolution there? The clock is really ticking. We are weeks away. Some harvests have started. And it's already been a tough year for the farm economy. So really, there's a lot of pressure for something to happen here in the next couple weeks. I had one CEO of one of the big farm companies tell me a couple months ago, October is the key date. Because if we're still having this spat with China, come October.

that's when things could really hit the fan. That was WSJ reporter, Patrick Thomas. Thanks, Patrick. Thanks so much for having me. As Patrick said, many U.S. farmers are switching more acres to corn, and they're expected to be flush with the crop this year. The Agriculture Department raised its outlook for how much corn will be produced by U.S. farmers this year to 16.81 billion bushels of corn.

That's well above the 2023 record high of 15.34 billion bushels and economist expectations. In its report, the USDA attributed the higher production to an increase in the amount of corn acres expected to be harvested this year. And we're exclusively reporting that Kirk Perry, the interim CEO of Tylenol maker Kenview, had a private meeting with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week

to dissuade the health secretary from including the over-the-counter medication as a potential cause in a coming report about the causes of autism. That's according to a person, familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Kennedy plans to cite the use of acetametaphon, the active ingredient in Tylenol, by pregnant women as a potential cause of autism in their children, among other potential causes. An HHS spokesman said the department is using gold standard science to explore rising autism rates, and until the report is released, any claims about its contents are speculation. In a statement, Kenvue said that it is engaged

in a scientific exchange with Kennedy and members of his staff, and that it maintains that acetametaphon does not cause autism. And one final note, this morning's episode of What's News incorrectly said Vice President J.D. Vance would be traveling to Utah today to meet with Charlie Kirk's family. In fact, Vance went to Utah yesterday. And that's What's News for this week. Tomorrow, you can look out for our weekly markets wrap-up, What's News and Markets. And we'll be back with our regular show on Monday morning. Today's show is produced by Pierre Biennameh and Rodney Davis with supervising producer Michael Cosmede. Michael Laval wrote our theme music.

Isha El-Muslim is our development producer. Chris Zinsley is our deputy editor. And Falana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of news audio. I'm Alex Osala. Thanks for listening.