The SPAC market faced more bad news in January, as speculative stocks with little earnings took a dive at the beginning of the year, in the face of rising interest rates in an oversaturated environment. A rising number of major deals have been abandoned so far this year. SPAC stands for a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, which raises capital in an initial public offering and uses the funds to merge with a private company in order to take it public, usually within two years. They are sometimes referred to as blank-check firms, as many IPO investors often have very little idea about the firm they are investing their funds in. Several companies that have gone public as SPACs have been among those worst affected by January’s tech-driven sell-off, as speculators are pulling out due to rate hikes. After raising a record $144 billion through 613 blank check IPOs last year, …