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Good Morning,

It was a quite uneventful day in markets, besides maybe the totally unsurprising news of Kim Kardashian no longer managing her SKKY Partners PE firm.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks closed flat in a light trading session yesterday after a strong start to the holiday week

  •  Dow rose for a fifth-straight day

• US 10Y yield hit the highest since May

• Dollar hit a five-month high versus yen

• Rolex watch prices index hit its lowest since November 2020, down 31% from its peak in March 2022

Earnings

• Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

• Twitter is absolutely losing it over the topic of legal / high-skill immigration, tech hiring, and some racism-fueled political sentiment.

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Headline Roundup

• Unemployment continuing claims hit a three-year high (RT)

• Kim Kardashian is no longer managing her PE firm SKKY Partners (AX)

• BlackRock wrote down the value of a flagship renewable fund (BBG)

• BNY Mellon revives two-week 'recharge period' for employees (YH)

• SOFR jumped to 4.4% despite Fed repo rate tweak (BBG)

• India roars ahead of China to top Asian IPO rankings (FT)

• Germany's own 'magnificent seven' helps DAX defy bleak growth outlook (FT)

• Argentina's Milei is driving the hedge fund trade of the year (WSJ)

• ESG funds have $1.4B exposure to China labor camps (FT)

• China EV sales set to overtake gas cars years ahead of west (FT)

• Argentina sold the most FX reserves since 2019 on importer demand (BBG)

• New York will fine fossil fuel companies $75B under new climate law (RT)

• Former Citigroup chairman Richard Parsons passed away (CNBC)

• Officials accused Russia in deadly Azerbaijan passenger plane crash (WSJ)

• Young Canadians are ditching hockey for basketball and soccer (FT)

• London exodus slowed to the lowest since 2013 (FT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Japanese electric motor maker Nidec made a $1.6B unsolicited takeover offer for industrial gear supplier Makino Milling Machine 

• NeueHealth's largest shareholder New Enterprise Associates and a group of existing investors will take the healthcare provider private in a $1.3B deal, including debt

• Martin Midstream Partners terminated a $157M merger deal with Martin Resource Management

• US PE firm Altaris will acquire Chinese pharma company WuXi AppTec's gene therapy manufacturing unit WuXi Advanced Therapies due to US national security restrictions

VC

• Cloud-based bank platform Infinant raised a $15M Series A led by FINTOP Capital and JAM FINTOP BankTech

• Performance planning platform Una Software raised a $5.6M round

• Caruso, a New Zealand-based software solutions for private market fund management, raised $3.2M in strategic funding led by Balmain

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Chinese battery giant CATL will seek a second Hong Kong listing

• Heating systems supplier Zhejiang Sanhua Intelligent Controls is preparing a second Hong Kong listing that could raise over $500M

• Nigeria's biggest lender Access Bank raised $228M in a rights offer

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• Struggling German air taxi firm Lilium agreed to sell the operating assets of its main subsidiaries to Mobile Uplift to restart operations following insolvency

Crypto Sum Snapshot

• Over 30% of South Koreans now own crypto assets (CT)

• Grant Cardone's Cardone Capital announced a real estate-Bitcoin hybrid fund (GNW)

• Stay on top of everything crypto here!

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