Global dealmaking entered 2026 echoing the narrowing breadth of the stock market: fewer transactions, but bigger checks.
M&A values rose in the first quarter ($319 billion versus $283 billion in the first quarter of 2025), despite deal volumes falling to their lowest level in several years, the latest report from S&P Global Market Intelligence shows. The data make the quarter look less like a broad recovery and more like a selective market in which companies pursue only the best deals.
The result is a multi-speed M&A cycle. Financing costs, geopolitical risks, and macroeconomic uncertainty continue to pressure smaller and mid-market deals. Meanwhile, large strategic capital continues to move, primarily into critical commodities, energy assets, and infrastructure-heavy technologies.
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