These Were The Best- (And Worst-) Performing IPOs Of 2023
In 2023, there were 154 IPOs on the U.S. stock market.
This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu, highlights the best U.S. Initial Public Offerings, ranked by their percentage return as of December 29, 2023, based on data from Stock Analysis.
Healthcare Dominates Top IPOs
Jin Medical emerged as the highest-performing IPO in 2023, despite facing delisting from the Nasdaq for failing to meet a listing rule requiring the firm to have at least 300 public holders.
According to an article from Benzinga, Jin Medical is a Cayman Islands holding company that owns Chinese manufacturers of wheelchairs.
Other top-performing IPOs in 2023 included healthcare names like RayzeBio, a clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical therapeutics company, and Structure Therapeutics, which focuses on “small molecule medicines”.
While four of the top 10 IPOs were in the healthcare sector, three were in financial services, two in technology, one in food and beverage, and the other in the energy sector.
IPOs That Bombed in 2023
Similarly, the majority of companies on the list of worst IPOs are from the healthcare sector. However, the list is led by the Chinese EV battery producer U Power. The company experienced highs of 1,100% at one point during its Nasdaq-listed IPO before plummeting due to regulatory restrictions in China.
This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu, highlights the worst U.S. Initial Public Offerings, ranked by their percentage return as of December 29, 2023, based on data from Stock Analysis.
Companies That Tanked the Hardest in 2023
The list of worst IPOs is led by U Power. The Chinese EV battery company experienced highs of 1,100% at one point during its Nasdaq-listed IPO before plummeting due to regulatory restrictions in China.
The list of worst performing IPOs in 2023 also includes:
Lucy Scientific Discovery, an early-stage psychotropics company
Mangoceuticals, an online retailer of erectile dysfunction treatments
Surf Air, an electric aviation company focused on regional air travel
Hanryu Holdings, which owns “Fantoo”, an online platform designed for fandom communities
The 154 IPOs on the US stock market in 2023 represented a 15% decrease compared to the 181 IPOs in 2022, and an 85% decline from the record number of 1,035 IPOs in 2021.
New research revealed that energy drinks could pose a greater risk to children’s and younger people’s brains than previously thought.
Those who consumed energy drinks were shown to have a higher risk of mental health problems such as depression, suicidal thoughts, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and anxiety, according to a study from Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health at Teesside University, and Newcastle University in the UK. It was published in the Public Health journal last month.
Researchers said they looked at data from 57 studies of more than 1.2 million children and younger people from more than 21 countries to come up with their conclusions.
It found that boys consumed more energy drinks than girls, while “many studies” reported an association between energy drink consumption and alcohol use, binge drinking, and smoking, as well as other substance use.
“Additional health effects noted in the updated review included increased risk of suicide, psychological distress, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms, depressive and panic behaviors, allergic diseases, insulin resistance, dental caries, and erosive tooth wear,” an abstract of the paper said.
Regarding the impacts on mental health, it found that “frequent” drinking of energy drinks “was associated with suicide attempts and severe stress,” while there “were also higher rates of suicide ideation and attempts with [energy drink] intake greater than once per day.”
“Longitudinal analysis reported that [energy drink] consumption was related to increased ADHD inattention, conduct disorder, depressive, and panic symptoms,” it continued to say.
A co-author, Shelina Visram, with Newcastle University, said in a news release that she is “deeply concerned about the findings that energy drinks can lead to psychological distress and issues with mental health.”
“These are important public health concerns that need to be addressed,” she added. “There has been policy inaction on this area despite [UK] government concern and public consultations. It is time that we have action on the fastest growing sector of the soft drink market.”
The researchers, who are based in the UK, also called on the government to either ban or restrict the energy drinks for younger people and children.
“This evidence suggests that energy drinks have no place in the diets of children and young people,” author Amelia Lake, professor of public health nutrition at Teesside University, told Fox News on Thursday. “Policymakers should follow the example from countries that have placed age restrictions on their sales to children.”
It’s because, their study shows, the researchers have “found an even greater list of mental and physical health outcomes associated with children and young people consuming energy drinks,” she said.
“We repeated [the review] only to find an ever-growing evident space that suggests the consumption of these drinks is associated with negative health outcomes,” Ms. Lake continued.
Several countries have already tried to regulate energy drinks, including bans on sales to minors in Latvia and Lithuania. Other countries such as Finland and Poland are also reportedly looking to ban the products from being sold to people under the age of 18.
The study, meanwhile, drew a response from UK officials. A spokesperson for the UK Department of Health and Social Care told the BBC that “we consulted on a proposal to end the sale of energy drinks to children under 16 in England, and will set out our full response in due course” and that “in the meantime, many larger retailers and supermarkets have voluntarily introduced a ban on the sale of energy drinks to children under 16.”
But several years ago, Christopher Snowdon, the head of Lifestyle Economics at the UK-based Institute of Economic Affairs, found that such bans unfairly target teenagers and said there is a lack of evidence to link the drinks to negative behaviors.
“The current scientific evidence alone is not sufficient to justify a measure as prohibitive as a statutory ban on the sale of energy drinks to children,” he wrote in an article published in 2020.
A senior BBC employee described white people as a “barbaric bloodthirsty rapacious murderous genocidal thieving parasitical deviant breed,” while also calling the UK a “bigoted” country.
Tell us what you really think.
Dawn Queva, who is a scheduling coordinator at BBC Three, made the comments on her Facebook page. It is unclear whether they were made before or after she was hired by the BBC, which appears to have done no checks on her background.
While Queva appears to vehemently hate white people, that didn’t stop her living in the UK, a country she branded “bigoted” and “genocidal,” while also referring to Britain as the “UKKK,” a reference to the Ku Klux Klan.
According to the BBC staffer, white people are “barbaric bloodthirsty rapacious murderous genocidal thieving parasitical deviant breed” who disturb the natural order of the planet.
Dawn Queva, a BBC3 senior scheduler & playout planner has been found making vile anti-Semitic comments on Facebook.
She referred to Jews as “Nazi parasites” who funded a “holohoax, japhetic AshkeNazi. She called white people “a virus, barbaric & bloodthirsty”.
She also called Jewish people “Nazi apartheid parasites” that funded a “holohoax”.
“Ms Queva’s posts were made under the name of Dawn Las Quevas-Allen on Facebook, but it has the same profile picture as her regular profile, and trade magazine Deadline reports that her identity has been confirmed,” reports the Telegraph.
Queva’s comments are made all the more remarkable by a story we highlighted earlier in the week.
BBC staff are being ordered not to hire anyone who refuses to embrace ‘diversity’ indoctrination, meaning candidates who are “dismissive” of diversity and inclusion are not being considered for roles at the British broadcaster.
Recruiters are told, “Don’t hire [candidates who are] unsuited to the organisation” if they are “dismissive or derisory of diversity and inclusion and surrounding topics.”
So while it rejects candidates who don’t fully embrace “diversity,” the BBC hired a senior employee who described white people as a “parasitical deviant breed” and a “mutant invader species”.
But they’re not biased at all, honest.
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The EU Has Already Provided $96 Billion In Aid To Ukraine
Earlier this week, EU leaders came together in Brussels to discuss a new €50-billion aid package for Ukraine, which had previously been vetoed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
After talks had been gridlocked for weeks over Hungary’s call for an annual approval process requiring unanimity, Thursday’s negotiations came to a successful end surprisingly quickly. Just an hour into the special European Council meeting, the council’s president Charles Michel announced on social media that a deal had been reached.
“We have a deal,” Michel wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“All 27 leaders agreed on an additional €50-billion support package for Ukraine within the EU budget. This locks in steadfast, long-term, predictable funding for Ukraine,” he added, hailing the EU for “taking leadership and responsibility in support for Ukraine.”
While it is yet unclear if and what concessions had to be made to Mr. Orban for him to support the deal, the agreement reportedly includes a regular review of the fund’s use by the European Commission.
A provision for veto, which Orban had effectively demanded, is said not to be included though.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy also turned to X to express his gratitude, saying that continued financial support from the EU for his country would strengthen long-term economic and financial stability, which he said was “no less important than military assistance and sanctions pressure on Russia.”
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU and its 27 member states have provided over $96 billion in financial, military and humanitarian aid as well as assistance to the roughly 8 million Ukrainian refugees who have fled to EU member states.
Welcome to the UK where it’s now official government policy that you CAN’T publish “misinformation”, but The Guardian, the BBC, Disney and Netflix CAN…
Yes, it’s true – the recently signed “Online Safety Act” brands the publication of “false information” a criminal offense punishable by up to a year in prison…
…unless you’re an MSM outlet, when it’s totally fine.
Think even the corrupt & bloated criminal class that rules over us would never dare be that blatant?
Take a look at section 179 making it illegal to publish false information with intent to cause harm:
…and then look at section 180, which exempts all MSM outlets from this new law :
…and that’s without even getting into OfCom’s “select committee”, or how they choose to define “misinformation” (s. 152)
Welcome to the modern definition of “freedom of speech”, where the MSM are directly and explicitly permitted to “knowingly publish false information with intent to cause non-trivial harm”, and you can be sent to jail for a year for calling out their lies.
Oh, and it looks like our friends across the pond might not be far behind. The Big Tech Senate hearings started yesterday, and social media executives are already throwing their support behind the new “Kids Online Safety Act”.
With the EU’s own Digital Services Act coming into force later this month, and all the focus on “misinformation and disinformation” at Davos two weeks ago, we can see the real crackdown on internet free speech is about to kick into gear.
Good times.
For a more in-depth break down of what exactly the “Online Safety Act” is and how it works, you can read our article from last September.
Calling on the United States to “end its complicity in the nightmare unfolding in Gaza,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday said he would introduce an amendment to remove more than $10 billion from the foreign aid supplemental requested by President Joe Biden.
The $10.1 billion has been proposed to pay for offensive weaponry funding for the Israeli government, which has reportedly killed at least 27,131 Palestinians in Gaza so far—including at least 11,500 children—and displaced 1.9 million.
“Twenty-seven thousand dead—two-thirds of them women and children,”said the Vermont Independent. “Sixty-seven thousand wounded… 70% of housing units damaged or destroyed. And now, hundreds of thousands of children facing starvation.”
“This is unacceptable,” added Sanders. “The United States cannot be complicit in this humanitarian disaster. That is why I will be offering an amendment to the supplemental bill to ensure zero funding for the continuation of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s illegal, immoral war against the Palestinian people.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated Thursday that lawmakers are close to finalizing the text of the national security supplemental, which also includes funding for Ukraine and security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Schumer said he would file cloture on a motion to proceed with the supplemental on Monday, “leading to the first vote on the national security supplemental no later than Wednesday.”
Politico congressional reporter Burgess Everett saidSanders’ amendment “will spark debate” but has little chance of passing.
Most Democrats think Biden is too old. Many think he can’t beat Trump. Young progressives are so appalled by his policy in Gaza that they’re disrupting his events. And yet no prominent progressive is challenging him in the primary. Can’t they see the opportunity?
Despite the International Court of Justice’s finding last month that it is “plausible” that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza and Americans’ growing opposition to the U.S. government’s support for Israel, the majority of federal lawmakers continue to claim that Israel is only acting in self-defense against Hamas as it bombards Gaza.
France Caves To Farmers As Ireland ‘Solidarity’ Protests Kick Off
Two of France’s main farming unions on Thursday agreed to suspend protests and lift road blockades across the country after the government announced measures the deemed “tangible progress” in the ongoing revolt against EU ‘climate-driven’ initiatives designed to wean society off of evil, non-bug-based, carbon-emitting food while China, India, and the rest of the world laughs.
In addition to France, protests have been held in Belgium, Portugal, Greece, Germany and elsewhere. Last week, tensions came to a head in Brussels when farmers threw eggs and stones at the European Parliament building, demanding that European leaders stop punishing them with more taxes and rising costs to finance the so-called ‘green agenda.’
After French farmers stepped up protests earlier in the week, the government promised on Thursday to extend protections – including better controlling imports and giving farmers additional aid, Reuters reports.
“Everywhere in Europe the same question arises: how do we continue to produce more but better? How can we continue to tackle climate change? How can we avoid unfair competition from foreign countries?,” said Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, announcing the new measures.
In response, France’s main farmers union, FNSEA, announced that it was time to lift the blockades and “go home.” Arnaud Gaillot of the Young Farmers’ union echoed the message, however both unions warned that other types of protests would continue, and they’d be back if the government doesn’t make good on their promises.
Meanwhile in Ireland, farmers began protesting Thursday evening.
“There’s a general dissatisfaction with the level of environmental regulation that is being heaped on farmers, the low margins, and (the) resulting low income the farmers have been suffering from for a very long time now,” said Cathal MacCarthy, media director for the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, adding “There will be a great deal of sympathy and solidarity with the aim and ambitions of the protests both in Ireland and on the Continent,” EURACTIV reports.
“They feel they are being regulated out of business by Brussels bureaucrats and Department of Agriculture officials who are far removed from the reality of day-to-day farming,” said Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) President Francine Gorman on Wednesday, ahead of the protests.
The concerns of the Irish beef and dairy farmers echo the concerns of other European farmers who have been protesting for weeks.
MacCarthy said Irish beef and dairy farmers also believe they are not being compensated fairly for the agrifood products they cultivate, given the increased costs involved in production as a result of environmental regulations.
“We need senior politicians to face consumers and say, ‘Lads, listen, the cost of producing this food is X, that has to be paid, and the margin that allows farmers to live (has to be paid), but we can’t just be dependent on what the supermarket feels like charging their customers,’” he said. -EURACTIV
“We can either continue to have cheap food, or we can have environmentally sustainable food, but we can’t have both,” said MacCarthy.
A former software engineer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for carrying out the “largest data breach” of classified materials in the agency’s history. He also faced charges related to child abuse imagery, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.
Joshua Schulte, a 35-year-old former CIA programmer, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman in a federal court in New York on Thursday for espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI, and child pornography charges.
The sentencing follows his convictions at trials that concluded in March 2020, July 2022, and September last year.
Prosecutors initially sought a life sentence for Mr. Schulte, accused of stealing classified CIA documents and leaking them to the whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks began publishing the classified data, known as “Vault 7,” in March 2017.
The files were dated 2013–2016 and concerned tactics and tools used by the CIA to surveil foreign governments, alleged extremists, and others by compromising their electronics, including smartphones, computers, smart TVs, and messaging applications.
Mr. Schulte had helped develop the hacking tools used by the agency as a coder at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Schulte repeatedly denied any involvement in the leak and refuted being the source of it. Instead, he was accused of “spinning fake narratives about ways the stolen CIA files could have been obtained from CIA computers,” in an attempt to deflect suspicion from himself and divert law enforcement resources toward false leads.
Breach Cost CIA ‘Hundreds of Millions of Dollars’
Mr. Schulte has consistently maintained his innocence, claiming that the CIA and FBI have scapegoated him for the March 2017 leak. He insists that it was the result of a hack.
However, prosecutors say the leak of the files “immediately and profoundly damaged the CIA’s ability to collect foreign intelligence against America’s adversaries” and placed CIA personnel, programs, and assets directly at risk while costing the agency hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mr. Schulte has been detained, pending trial, since 2018.
The former CIA worker has also been charged with receiving, possessing, and transporting child pornography after prosecutors said a search of his home led to the discovery of “layers of encryption hiding tens of thousands of videos and images of child sexual abuse materials” on his computer.
That included 3,400 images and videos of “disturbing and horrific child pornography” as well as “images of bestiality and sadomasochism,” prosecutors said.
Mr. Schulte collected the images during his employment with the CIA via the dark web, according to prosecutors.
Schulte’s ‘Information War’
They further claimed that Mr. Schulte made plans to wage what he called an “information war” against the government after his arrest. He obtained contraband cellphones while in jail, which he used to create anonymous, encrypted email and social media accounts.
He allegedly used the cellphones to transmit more of the materials to WikiLeaks and “planned to use the anonymous email and social media accounts to publish a manifesto and various other postings containing classified information about CIA cyber techniques and cyber tools,” the DOJ said.
“Joshua Schulte betrayed his country by committing some of the most brazen, heinous crimes of espionage in American history. He caused untold damage to our national security in his quest for revenge against the CIA for its response to Schulte’s security breaches while employed there,” U.S. attorney Damian Williams said in a statement announcing Mr. Schulte’s sentencing.
“When the FBI caught him, Schulte doubled down and tried to cause even more harm to this nation by waging what he described as an ‘information war’ of publishing top secret information from behind bars. And all the while, Schulte collected thousands upon thousands of videos and images of children being subjected to sickening abuse for his own personal gratification,” Mr. Williams continued.
Prosecutors praised the “outstanding investigative work” of the FBI and prosecutors in unmasking Mr. Schulte for “the traitor and predator that he is.”
Their work ensured that he would spend 40 years behind bars, “right where he belongs,” Mr Williams added.
In addition to the 40 years in prison, Mr. Schulte, who represented himself in court, was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release.
Mimi Nguyen Ly and Reuters contributed to this report.
Russia Calls Urgent UN Security Council Meeting To Condemn ‘Illegal’ US Strikes
Russia has condemned the Friday night large-scale US strikes on Syria and Iraq, saying it was an illegal ‘aggression’ and that an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting must be convened to address it.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Saturday of the American operation which killed some 40 people, including civilians, that it “once again demonstrated to the world the aggressive nature of US policy in the Middle East and Washington’s complete disregard for international law.”
According to TASS, “A UN Security Council meeting in connection with the US strikes is scheduled for February 5”; however, the UN has yet to confirm or publish details of the upcoming emergency session.
Additionally Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, said: “We just demanded an urgent sitting of the UN Security Council over the threat to peace and safety created by US strikes on Syria and Iraq.”
The Pentagon said it struck over 85 targets in Iraq and Syria, and there are likely more bombing waves to come in the next days.
In fresh Saturday remarks, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said“This is the start of our response.” Some unnamed US officials have even said the operation could continue for days or even weeks, in response to the Sunday drone attack on the Jordanian border base which killed three Americans.
While Russia has over several years repeatedly condemned US operations over Syria, and especially the troop occupation in the northeast, it has never responded with an anti-air intercept, or at least this has never been publicly disclosed.
But this remains a possibility so long as major US aerial operations continue. Russian jets and convoy patrols are present especially in Syria’s northwest, but have also been known to stretch near Deir Ezzor, the other side of which the Pentagon has a presence.
Whilst the US strikes on Syria and Iraq are illegal and an act of aggression, 1) The US would have given Russia advance notice of the strikes; 2) Russia would have forewarned the intended targets; 3) Damage will be limited; and 4) The US is maintaining its thuggish reputation.
Moscow says that the US is there illegally, while Russian military intervention was invited in by the Assad government, to stave off externally-sponsored jihadist and terror attacks on the Syrian population.
The court found that the senators are banned from running for reelection under a constitutional amendment approved in 2022.
The amendment, Ballot Measure 113, states that lawmakers who miss at least 10 legislative days without an excuse cannot seek reelection.
The ruling upheld a decision from Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade, a Democrat.
Ms. Griffin-Valade said in 2023 that the senators, under the measure, could not try for another term after their current term.
“My decision honors the voters’ intent by enforcing the measure the way it was commonly understood when Oregonians added it to our state constitution,” she said at the time.
The decision sparked a lawsuit from some of the Republican senators, but the Oregon Supreme Court sided with the secretary of state.
“Because the text is capable of supporting the secretary’s interpretation, and considering the clear import of the ballot title and explanatory statement in this case, we agree with the secretary that voters would have understood the amendment to mean that a legislator with 10 or more unexcused absences during a legislative session would be disqualified from holding legislative office during the immediate next term, rather than the term after that,” the new ruling reads.
Justices said they used their typical methodology in construing the amendment “by determining how the voters who adopted the amendment most likely understood its text.” The method included considering the information presented to voters, which stated that voting yes would disqualify legislators with 10 unexcused absences for the term “following current term in office.”
“Those other materials expressly and uniformly informed voters that the amendment would apply to a legislator’s immediate next terms of office, indicating that the voters so understood and intended that meaning,” the justices wrote.
The ruling applies to 10 Republican senators in the 30-seat body.
“I’ve said from the beginning my intention was to support the will of the voters,” Ms. Griffin-Valade said in a statement. “It was clear to me that voters intended for legislators with a certain number of absences in a legislative session to be immediately disqualified from seeking reelection. I’m thankful to the Oregon Supreme Court for providing clarity on how to implement Measure 113.”
Oregon Senate President Rob Wagner, a Democrat, said that the ruling “means that legislators and the public now know how Measure 113 will be applied, and that is good for our state.”
The senators in question, including state Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, missed more than 10 days in 2023 while protesting Democrat-sponsored bills on abortion and other issues. Their walkout of about six weeks delayed voting because it resulted in a lack of quorum, or the minimum number of senators needed to be present to hold a vote.
“We obviously disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling. But more importantly, we are deeply disturbed by the chilling impact this decision will have to crush dissent,” Mr. Knopp said on Feb. 1.
Oregon voters approved Measure 113 by a wide margin following Republican walkouts in the Legislature in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
The measure says disqualification applies to “the term following the election after the member’s current term is completed.”
Mr. Knopp and others had challenged the interpretation of the measure.
Lawyers for the senators said they viewed the measure language as meaning that the lawmakers could run in 2024, since a senator’s term ends in January while elections are held the previous November. They argued the penalty doesn’t take effect immediately, but rather, after they’ve served another term.
All parties in the suit had sought clarity on the issue before the March 2024 filing deadline for candidates who want to run in this year’s election.
Mr. Knopp and three other Republican senators had already launched reelection bids before the case was considered, while two other senators have said that they’re retiring at the end of their terms. The remaining GOP senators were elected in 2022 for terms that end in early 2027, so they will be barred from running in 2026.
Justice Aruna Masih didn’t participate in the consideration of the case or the decision, the Oregon Supreme Court stated.
All justices on the Oregon Supreme Court were appointed by Democrat governors, either Gov. Kate Brown or Gov. Tina Kotek.
“I’m disappointed but can’t say I’m surprised that a court of judges appointed solely by Gov. Brown and Gov. Kotek would rule in favor of political rhetoric rather than their own precedent,” said state Sen. Suzanne Weber, another lawmaker affected by the ruling. “The only winners in this case are Democrat politicians and their union backers.”
Another challenge from Republicans, this one in federal court, is still pending. The court recently denied a preliminary request that would have let three of the Republicans run, a decision the Republicans have appealed.
