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We鈥檙e nearing the end of the second quarter of the year, and it鈥檚 been unpleasant to say the least.

Inflation, rising interest rates and the war in Ukraine have caused a lot of volatility in the stock market, with the S&P 500 dipping into bear market territory last week. While last year was a record for both traditional IPOs and SPACs, 2022 so far has pretty much been the opposite.

I decided to check in on the state of SPACs and traditional IPOs this year, and chatted with a couple people in the know to get their thoughts on what we can expect going forward. The overall consensus: Activity is pretty slow, and not expected to pick up unless inflation numbers come down.

So far this year, 38 SPACs have completed their mergers, per , and 67 SPACs have had initial public offerings, according to

On the IPO front, 41 companies have priced their offerings this year, per

For context, last year there were 613 SPAC IPOs with gross proceeds of nearly $163 billion, per SPAC Insider. Another 399 traditional IPOs collectively raised $142.5 billion.

The stock market won鈥檛 start to calm down until there鈥檚 a meaningful reduction in the monthly inflation numbers, according to , founder and president of . He expects companies will resist going public until the volatility in the public markets subsides.

A 鈥榤essy鈥� market

鈥淭his is about as messy as I鈥檝e seen it,鈥� Healey said, noting he experienced both the dot-com boom and the Great Recession.

鈥淚f this persists, we鈥檙e not going to see much in the way of capital markets activity,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I think that鈥檚 going to be true for the remainder of the year as the market digests the Fed activity, the midterm elections and the general slowdown of the economy.鈥�

Healey doesn鈥檛 expect SPAC activity to pick up either, since the volatility in the market reduces investors鈥� appetite to put their money into a blank-check company. SPAC targets also tend to be younger, less mature companies that are aspirational with high growth鈥攁nd the market isn鈥檛 rewarding growth stocks.

We should also expect to see companies that want to go public through a traditional IPO鈥攁nd trust me, there are plenty in the pipeline鈥攌eep their plans on pause as well. and are just a couple of the big names rumored to be 2022 IPO candidates before the market took a nosedive.

If they can afford to wait out the chaos in the public markets and raise money elsewhere, they will.

鈥淭hose tend to be companies that could just as easily raise in the private markets, so I think you鈥檙e going to see more and more of that,鈥� Healey said.

The outlook for the rest of 2022

There will likely be between 80 and 100 IPOs this year if the market 鈥渉angs in there,鈥� according to , the founder of . That鈥檚 pretty on pace with how things have been so far this year; there have been 41 IPO pricings so far, with many of those health care or biotech companies, according to IPO Scoop.

The current market selloff is historically in line with what happens after a record year like 2021, Schuster said. 鈥淭he market is catching up to reality,鈥� he said. 鈥淰aluations cannot stay up that high, especially if growth is not as strong. The reaction of the market is brutal, (with) Snap down 40% Tuesday. There鈥檚 no margin for error.鈥�

Schuster said there are some strategic benefits to going public in a bear market, so we could see some notable deals.

鈥淎ssuming the bear market doesn鈥檛 go forever, the companies that manage to go public in a weaker market鈥攖hat鈥檚 typically a good sign of quality,鈥� Schuster said.

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