David Prosser: Glencore's IPO may not be a moment too soon

Outlook Roll up, roll up, for the Glencore flotation, likely to be announced as early as today. The commodities trader is certainly leaving it to the last minute to get its IPO away – a string of companies have dropped plans for listings over the past couple of weeks, so fragile is confidence in the new-issues market. There is also a growing clamour from commodities bears – witness the warning from Goldman Sachs earlier this week – that we may have reached the top of the boom.

Glencore is in a different league to the small and medium-sized companies that have pulled back from the market. The latest of these, Skrill, was after £170m, while Glencore is talking about £37bn. Still, it will be interesting to see whether this float proves the rule that anticipation is almost always better than the party itself.