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Russian pipeline gas exports to Europe hit a post-Soviet era low, the Nasdaq is down 36.4% from its peak, Instacart cut its internal valuation by another 20%, Amazon is planning a standalone app for sports content, Musk told employees not to be worried about stock market craziness (lol), and the US will require negative Covid tests for passengers from China. Is it 2020 again???

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• All three major US indexes shed over 1% as investors weighed China's re-opening and uncertainty regarding interest rate paths 

  • The Nasdaq hit a new bear market low, down 36.4% from its November 2021 peak

• Canada's TSX index fell 1.4% and is set for an annual decline for the first time since 2018

• Chinese stocks retreated due to new concerns over how the latest Covid outbreak in China may lead to new virus variants and cause stoppages to the global supply chain that's still under pressure

Earnings

• Nothing to report here

Headline Roundup

• US pending home sales fell more than an expected 4% in November (RT)

• Russian pipeline gas exports to Europe hit a post-Soviet low this year (RT)

• Banks are reducing loans to UK oil and gas producers after the UK raised its windfall tax (FT)

• Japan will prioritize raising wages in economic policy (RT)

• Instacart cut its internal valuation by another 20% to $10B (TI)

• Amazon is planning a standalone app for sports content (TI)

• Goldman Sachs will announce up to 4k job cuts in January (BBG)

• Exxon sued the EU over its decision to impose a new tax on energy companies' high profits triggered by the Russia / Ukraine conflict (RT)

• Negative-yielding bonds could be approaching their final days, with $254B outstanding, down from $18T two years ago (WSJ)

• Musk told Tesla employees to not be 'bothered by stock market craziness' (RT)

• Ship insurers will cancel war-risk cover for Russia and Ukraine from Jan 1 (RT)

• US will require negative Covid tests for passengers flying from China (CNBC)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Russian state-owned VTB Bank will acquire bailed-out Otkritie Bank from Russia's central bank for $4.7B (RT)

• Japanese conglomerate Hitachi completed the purchase of the remaining 19.9% stake in Swiss engineering/tech firm ABB's power grid business, granting ABB $1.4B (RT)

• Norwegian offshore driller Seadrill will buy UK-based Aquadrill in a $958M all-stock deal (RT)

• Indian mattress maker Sheela Foam will acquire rival Kurlon for $241.3M (ET)

• Drugmaker Gilead Sciences will buy all the remaining rights for an experimental cancer therapy from Jounce Therapeutics for $67M (RT)

• Investment company Galaxy Digital Holdings agreed to buy Bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain’s Helios Bitcoin mining facility for ~$65M (BBG)

• Fiber optic company Luna Fibra agreed to buy Samm, a fiber optic subsidiary of Brazilian transportation infrastructure company CCR, for $46.29M (RT)

• Brazilian conglomerate Guararapes Confeccoes is mulling a potential stake sale (BBG)

VC

• Aerones, a startup building robots to scrub and inspect wind turbines, raised $38.9M in funding from dozens of undisclosed investors (TC)

SPAC

• SPAC USA Acquisition Corp. filed to withdraw its IPO (MW)

Fundraising

• Bullpen Capital raised a new $145M VC fund to support overlooked startups with potential for long-term growth (WSJ)

Crypto Corner

• Bitcoin miner, Argo Blockchain, will avoid bankruptcy with $100M bailout from Novogratz' Galaxy Digital (CD)

• SBF will enter a plea in FTX fraud case (RT)

• SEC found that FTX diverted $200M of customer money for two VC deals (CNBC)

• FTX customers filed a class action in attempt to claim FTX assets (CT)

• Solana crypto token is down 94% YTD (RT)

Exec's Picks

• America’s Team takes on the Tennessee Titans in tonight’s primetime game. The Cowboys are heavy favorites currently trading at $82 on Sporttrade, America’s only regulated sports trading exchange. Which means they have a 82% chance to win. But it doesn't matter which team actually wins. Trade in and out of the game based on the momentum at any point in the game. Because on Sporttrade, you can trade sports like you do stocks. Download on iOS anywhere. If you are in NJ or travel to NJ you can start trading today.

• Grade inflation at Harvard over the last few decades has been extreme, as seen in this Crimson piece.

• Morgan Housel's latest piece on "Why Competitive Advantages Die" is fantastic.

The Hiring Block 💼

If you're looking to break into finance, lateral, or move out, check out our job board on Pallet, where we curate highly relevant roles for you. We aim to curate jobs across IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We'll sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

If you're a company looking to hire candidates and want to list a job opening on our board and feature on Exec Sum, click the button below:

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