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US average hourly wages rose 4.2% YoY in March, corporate bankruptcies jumped in Q1, Morgan Stanley wants to set up a futures shop in China, the IRS will hire 20k new workers by 2024, WeWork adopted a poison pill, Tesla cut its US prices again, and millennial homeowners now outnumber renters.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks ticked upwards on Thursday to end a shortened trading week as investors braced for Friday's jobs report for clues about the Fed's rate hike path

  • The S&P posted its first down week in four, with the Nasdaq also ending the week in red

  • US stock and bond markets were closed on the 7th in observance of Good Friday

• The near-term forward spread, the Fed's preferred gauge of an upcoming recession which measures the difference between the expected 3-month rate 18-months from now and the current 3-month yield, plunged to fresh lows of -170 bps not seen since 2007

• We'll receive March inflation data and several major banks’ earnings calls this week

Earnings

• Constellation Brands beat Q4 EPS estimates and matched on revenue despite a 2% drop in beer sales and 14% drop in wine/spirit sales, while also providing higher guidance (INV)

• Levi Strauss topped Q1 EPS and revenue estimates but warned of a margin crunch this year as it expects to offer higher promotions while also grappling with higher costs; their stock fell 16% (RT)

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Wednesday: LVMH

  • Thursday: Delta

  • Friday: JPMorgan, Citi, Wells Fargo, BlackRock

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US added 236k jobs in March in lowest monthly gain since December 2020 (CNBC)

• US average hourly earnings rose 4.2% YoY (CNBC)

• World food prices fell for a twelfth-straight month in March (RT)

• Corporate bankruptcies jumped in Q1 (AX)

• US bank lending contracted by most on record in final weeks of March (BBG)

• Options trading surges ahead of US bank earnings (FT) 

• Japanese firms are selling record amounts of short-term bonds in bet BOJ will end ultra-loose rate policy (BBG)

• US dividend funds saw biggest quarterly outflows in 2.5 years (RT)

• Bank deposits edged up after record outflows (RT)

• Borrowing from key Fed facilities cooled last week (RT)

• European banks ramp up bespoke loan trades to reduce risk (RT)

• US regulators are scrutinizing JPMorgan’s dealmaking flurry (FT)

• Morgan Stanley is looking to set up a futures shop in China (RT)

• IRS will hire ~20k staff over two years (RT)

• Google search plans to include chat AI (WSJ)

• WeWork adopted a poison pill to limit shareholders from raising stakes (RT)

• Amazon will trim ESOPs amid tough economy (RT)

• Morgan Stanley CEO's pay rose 13% to ~$40M in 2022 (RT)

• First Republic will suspend dividends on preferred stock (RT)

• EPA plans to boost EV sales tenfold by 2032 (NYT)

• Tesla cuts US prices for fifth time since January (RT)

• Southwest CEO received a higher bonus despite holiday meltdown (RT)

• McDonald’s will lay off hundreds of corporate employees and cut pay packages (WSJ)

• Americans are working less hours than before the pandemic (BBG)

• Millennial homeowners outnumber renters for first time (AX)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Exxon held preliminary talks about possibly purchasing fracking company Pioneer Natural Resources, which has a market value of ~$49B (BBG)

• China Southern Power Grid agreed to buy a set of Italian utility Enel’s assets in Peru for ~$2.9B (BBG)

• iNova Pharmaceuticals is in talks to buy the OTC business of Mundipharma International that could be worth ~$700M in a deal (BBG)

• Credit-oriented investment manager Sound Point Capital Management agreed to buy Assured Investment Management (YH)

• Media company Paramount is exploring selling a major stake in Noggin, its online streaming service for preschool children (WSJ)

• Swiss banking software company Temenos is seeking interest from potential suitors after previous deal talks fell apart last year over price (BBG)

VC

• HeartFlow, a heart care startup, raised a $215M Series F led by Bain Capital Life Sciences (FN)

• Prism, a lending platform tailored to tech companies and their employees, raised a $26M seed round and Series A led by Pantera Capital and Human Capital (FN)

• Forme Financial, a wealth system for physicians, raised a $12M Series A led by Hudson Structured Capital Management and Breyer Capital (FN)

• All-in-one marketing and payments platform Hype raised a $10M Series A led by King River Capital (FN)

• Agnostiq, a Toronto-based distributed computing startup, raised a $6.1M seed extension round led by Differential Ventures (FN)

• Hong Kong-based AI-driven social metaverse company Social Future raised $6M in funding from SNZ, Everest Venture Group, Folius Ventures, and others (FN)

• Medtech startup CND Life Sciences raised a $4.5M seed III round led by Top Corner Capital (FN)

• Market intelligence platform Native AI raised a $3.5M seed round led by JumpStart Ventures and Ivy Ventures (FN)

• Huddle01, a decentralized communication network, raised $2.8M in funding from Hivemind (PRN)

• Edtech startup Innovare raised a $2M seed extension round from Cleveland Avenue, Dux Capital, and more (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Hoppecke, a German manufacturer of energy storage units and power supplies, is considering an IPO of its specialist lithium-ion unit at a potential $382M valuation (BBG)

Debt

• Bahrain raised $2B in first bond sale since late-2021 (NDQ)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Pear Therapeutics, a maker of prescription digital therapeutics, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is seeking a sale of its business/assets (FRB)

Crypto Corner

• Binance.US is struggling to find bank to take its customers' cash (WSJ)

• Jane Street, Tower and Radix are unnamed ‘VIPs’ in Binance case (BBG)

• FTX lacked fundamental financial/accounting controls, stifled dissent within the company and joked about tendency to lose track of millions of dollars (BBG)

• Polygon became second-largest gaming blockchain after user activity surged in March (CT)

• Australian regulator cancels Binance’s license at firm's own request (CNBC)

• Apple hiding a bitcoin manifesto in Macs is fueling theories that Steve Jobs was Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin's anonymous inventor (BI)

Exec's Picks

• Bloomberg covered The Chainsmokers' recent foray into the venture capital world.

• Axios broke down Biden's strategy to use social media influencers in a likely reelection run.

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