NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Exchange operator Nasdaq

is on track to beat the New York Stock Exchange on

listings for the sixth straight year in 2024, as Wall Street

looks for a bumper crop of initial public offerings in 2025.

Companies raised approximately $22 billion across 160

initial public offerings at Nasdaq in the first 11 months of

this year, outpacing the nearly $17 billion in 34 listings for

NYSE, according to data provided by Dealogic and Nasdaq.

This was the highest listings volume in three years. Market

watchers took it as another hopeful sign for IPO volume, which

has slumped in recent years after the Federal Reserve ramped up

interest rates in 2022 to stem surging inflation. This also

raised the cost of capital for companies.

Many believe the IPO pickup will extend into 2025, when

investors expect President-elect Donald Trump to enact policies

including deregulation that could put a charge into deals.

"We do think that conditions are right for a very robust IPO

market starting in the new year," said Jeff Thomas, global head

of listings at Nasdaq, in an interview with Reuters. "We're very

actively pitching companies that are talking about accessing the

public markets in either Q1 or Q2."

The two New York exchanges have competed fiercely for new

listings which generate annual fees. Both remain attractive

listing destinations for global companies.

Strong U.S. stock performance has bolstered investor

confidence. The S&P 500 is up nearly 27% this year, while

the Nasdaq Composite has

gained

almost 33%.

Among the companies debuting on Nasdaq this year were cold

storage real estate investment trust Lineage, the

largest IPO in 2024, healthcare payments company Waystar and

chip maker Astera Labs ( ALAB ).

Nasdaq's listings included 44 special purpose acquisition

company IPOs, which Thomas said is back to historical norms. The

exchange also snatched notable listing transfers such as

Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ) and the soup company Campbell from the

NYSE.

NYSE executives, for their part, said the comparison was one

of quantity over quality.

"We don't measure success by the number of deals we execute.

We measure it by the quality of our community," said Michael

Harris, vice chairman and global head of capital markets at

NYSE.

NYSE said 62% of Nasdaq IPOs in 2024 did not qualify to list

on its exchange, and that it added more than $400 billion in

market capitalization to include IPOs, spinoffs and transfers.

In the first half of the year, the Intercontinental

Exchange ( ICE )-owned NYSE listed seven of the 10 largest U.S.

transactions as wins, such as Rubrik ( RBRK ), a cybersecurity firm

backed by Microsoft ( MSFT ), Viking Holdings ( VIK ) and Amer Sports ( AS ).

Still, with both active and passive investment capital

rushing to Nasdaq-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds, IPO

issuers are favoring Nasdaq over the NYSE, said Samuel Kerr,

head of equity capital markets at Ion Analytics.

"With investors continuing to buy into the AI revolution

through Nasdaq-listed firms like Nvidia ( NVDA ) and companies like Peter

Thiel's Palantir ( PLTR ) shifting their listings to the exchange from

NYSE, we will continue to see more IPO issuers try to ride this

rising tide," Kerr added.

Most forecasts for a strong year depend on U.S. interest

rates falling further and the economy remaining resilient.

Several months of stalled progress on inflation have stirred

doubts over how far and how fast the Fed will be able to cut

rates in 2025.

And while U.S. growth remains strong, Trump's pledges to

enact tariffs on U.S. trading partners is seen as a potential

threat to the economy in 2025, especially if other countries

respond with retaliatory measures.

For now, however, optimism remains high.

The Nasdaq IPO Pulse Index, which forecasts the direction of

U.S. IPO activity over the next six months, hit a more than

three-year high in October, indicating IPO activity is looking

up in early 2025, according to the exchange.

"There is a lot of pent up demand that gets pushed to 2025,"

said Owen Lau, senior analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. "It should be

a big year for IPOs."