The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, Feb. 19, edition that investors have eagerly awaited a surge of initial public offerings following President Trump's election. A New York Times dispatch to The Globe reports that the administration's tariff announcements and rapid regulatory changes, however, have led to uncertainty and volatility. Rising inflation has caused market jitters. The launch of the Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek prompted a sell-off in U.S. tech stocks, particularly in the AI sector. All that has affected initial public offerings. Public offerings this year are outpacing last year's, with companies raising $6.6-billion (U.S.), a 14-per-cent increase compared with the same time last year. Yet there are no signs of the IPO wave that many had anticipated. David Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, said last month that one reason IPO activity had been slow was that start-ups could get the capital they needed from private investors. Goldman helped Stripe, the payments start-up valued at $70-billion (U.S.), raise billions of dollars last year, he said. "That's a company that never would have been a private company today, given their capital needs, but today you can," he said.