News service Bloomberg reported over the weekend that Israel based online broker eToro is postponing its IPO roadshow, following the financial market upheaval caused late last week by the unveiling of across-the-board trade tariffs by the Trump administration.

Trump Tariffs and equity markets

After Donald Trump announced on his proclaimed “Liberation Day” (April 2) expected, but more-severe-than-anticipated, import tariffs on virtually all nations including many of the United States’ leading trade partners such as China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, and the EU, equity markets began what has been (so far) a two day steep selloff. The broad S&P500 index dropped a total of 10.5% on Thursday and Friday, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ (where eToro was planning to list) did even worse, shedding 11.4% of its value.

Publicly traded online brokers

Online brokers weren’t spared in the risk-off trading sessions, losing on average about 10% of their value. One of eToro’s main competitors and “comps”, US neobroker Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD), saw its shares decline by 19% on Thursday and Friday.

eToro IPO roadshow

eToro had publicly filed its F-1 registration statement (or in common parlance, IPO prospectus) back on March 24, and was apparently gearing up to begin its IPO roadshow this week. Most companies that “go public” in the US spend between one and two weeks meeting with large public market investors in an “IPO roadshow” arranged by the offering underwriters, before taking orders and then finalizing the size and pricing of “the deal”.

But this is not a good environment anymore to engage potential investors, or to look at pricing a new offering. eToro isn’t the only one caught up in the Trump Tariffs market mayhem – Bloomberg stated that other companies in the process of going public are also halting their offerings, including popular event ticket sale site StubHub, and Sweden fintech company Klarna Bank AB.

eToro IPO size and valuation

As far as eToro’s planned discussions with potential investors, Israel news site Globes is reporting that eToro was planning to raise between $300 and $400 million in its IPO offering, at a (pre-money) valuation for eToro of $4.5 billion. We had posted our analysis of eToro’s results, and several issues surrounding the valuation of eToro including its decision to list on NASDAQ, in an earlier article.

But that was before the Trump Tariffs, and the subsequent market reaction.