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Good Morning,

Tech giants led a green day in the market, the dollar had its largest drop in months against the yuan, Disney and Charter ended their dispute, Alibaba’s new CEO laid out strategic priorities, Jamie Dimon slammed regulators on their new capital requirements plans, and Cramer warned that Wall Street’s AI craze may be peaking.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks rallied, led by tech stocks, ahead of Wednesday’s inflation report

  • The Nasdaq led indices with a 1.14% gain

• Asian stocks closed mixed as investors await Indian and Chinese economic data

• Bitcoin price fell below $25,000 for the first time in three months

Earnings

• Oracle stock plummeted 9% after it narrowly missed fiscal Q1 revenue estimates and forecast lighter-than-expected quarterly revenue guidance; it beat adjusted earnings expectations (CNBC)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Wednesday: Cracker Barrel

  • Thursday: Adobe, Lennar

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Tech giants power stock gains as Tesla jumps 10% (BBG)

• Dollar drops most in two months as yuan, yen rally on pushback (BBG)

• Oil holds near-yearly high ahead of OPEC, US market outlooks (BBG)

• Steve Forbes says the Fed is not going to cut rates soon (CNBC)

• Disney, Charter end dispute, restoring ESPN, ABC to 15M households (WSJ)

• Apple’s high-stakes iPhone launch explained in five charts (BBG)

• Truist eyes ‘sizable’ job cuts in effort to trim expenses (BBG)

• US v. Google: what to know about the biggest antitrust trial in 20 years (WSJ)

• Hedge fund boss slams hydrogen bets as ‘complete waste of time’ (BBG)

• New Alibaba Group CEO lays out strategic priorities for staff (RT)

• For retail investors, jumping on Arm’s blockbuster IPO is a risky business (RT)

• Jamie Dimon slams regulators on capital plans, urges ‘more humility’ (BBG)

• UAW bends on wage demands as talks progress in Detroit (WSJ)

• How Luckin Coffee overtook Starbucks as the largest coffee chain in China (CNBC)

• Cramer warns Wall Street’s AI craze may be peaking (CNBC)

• 2023 severe weather: $57B in damage and 253 people dead so far (CNBC)

• Libya hit by powerful storm, with thousands feared dead (WSJ)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Arjun Infrastructure Partners, a London-based mid-market investment firm overseeing $5.9B, is exploring strategic options amid increasing consolidation in the PE industry (BBG)

• Food manufacturer J.M. Smucker agreed to acquire Twinkies maker Hostess Brands for ~$5.6B (BBG)

• EU antitrust regulators have paused their investigation into Amazon’s $1.7B acquisition of robot vacuum maker iRobot to wait for more information from the companies (RT)

• Australia’s largest pension fund, AustralianSuper, will acquire a minority stake in Vantage Data’s Europe, Middle East and Africa business for $1.6B (RT)

• Swedish video game conglomerate Embracer Group is exploring options, including a sale or spin-off, for Gearbox Entertainment, a video game studio it acquired two-and-a-half years ago for $1.3B (BBG)

• Financial advisor Cetera Financial Group will take wealth management solutions provider Avantax private for $1.2B, including debt (RT)

• KKR, an existing shareholder, will invest an additional $1B+ into USI Insurance Services to become its largest shareholder (RT)

• Monarch, Royal Palm Cos. and an Aimbridge Hospitality affiliate are looking to sell the Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve Puerto Rico for as much as $200M (BBG)

• Struggling Indian edtech startup Byju’s is in talks to sell its US-based kids’ digital reading platform Epic! Creations and its Great Learning Education unit to raise funds and repay debt (BBG)

• Alternative investor 777 Partners is nearing a deal to acquire Everton Football Club from owner Farhad Moshiri (BBG)

• PE firm L Catterton, which is backed by French fashion giant LVMH, is close to acquiring a majority stake in Japanese veterinary services company Withmal (BBG)

• JetBlue Airways agreed to sell all of Spirit Airlines’ Boston and Newark Liberty airport assets to Allegiant Air, which will help it win approval for its $3.8B acquisition of Spirit (RT)

VC

• Battery recycling startup Ascend Elements raised a $542M Series D led by Decarbonization Partners (TC)

• Reliance Retail, India’s largest retail chain, received a $250M investment at a $100B valuation from KKR (TC)

• BlueWave, a solar developer, owner, and operator, raised $91M in financing: a debt raise of $64M with KeyBank and a tax equity raise of $27M with U.S. Bancorp (FN)

• UK satellite startup Open Cosmos raised a $50M round led by ETF Partners (TC)

• GHGSat, a greenhouse gas emissions intelligence company, raised a $44M Series C1 led by BDC Capital, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, and others (FN)

• Kale Logistics, an Indian startup offering a vertical SaaS platform to assist logistics needs, raised a $30M Series B led by Creaegis Advisors (TC)

• eCommerce platform AMP raised an $18.5M Series A led by Jungle Ventures and Openspace Ventures (BW)

• Tribun Health, a Paris-based digital pathology company, raised a $16.1M Series B led by Bpifrance (FN)

• Tradeteq, a London-based tech provider for banks’ SaaS platforms, raised a $12.5M Series A Plus led by MS&AD Ventures (FN)

• GamePhilos, a Singapore-based studio focused on strategy games, raised an $8M seed round led by Xterio, Animoca Ventures, SevenX Ventures, and Chain Hill Capital (BW)

• Edtech startup Mathpresso raised an $8M round led by Korean Telecom company KT (FN)

• Detrapel, a sustainable coating manufacturer, raised a $7.6M Series A led by Material Impact (FN)

• Land, an electric mobility and battery manufacturer, raised a $7M Series A led by Ancora (FN)

• Scala Biodesign, an Israeli startup specializing in protein development, raised a $5.5M seed round led by TLV Partners (FN)

• Common Trust, an employee ownership buyout startup, raised a $2.6M seed round led by Crossbeam Venture Partners (TC)

• Hadrius, an NYC-based SEC compliance company, raised a $2M seed round from Y Combinator, Lynett Capital, Singularity Capital, and more (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Instacart is seeking to raise as much as $616M at up to a $9.3B valuation in its IPO (BBG)

• Marketing firm Klaviyo is seeking to raise up to $518M at an $8.4B valuation in a US IPO (RT)

• Neumora Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical backed by SoftBank and Amgen, is seeking a valuation of up to $2.7B in its US IPO (RT)

• State-owned non-banking financial company Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency filed for an IPO (RT)

• UAE-headquartered hypermarket chain and mall operator Lulu Group International expects to launch an IPO in the first half of 2024 (RT)

Debt

• J.M. Smucker secured a $5.2B bridge loan from Bank of America and RBC Capital Markets to finance its acquisition of Hostess Brands (BBG)

• T-Mobile raised $2B through a two-part bond offering, the longest portion of the offering being a 30-year security (BBG)

• A group of banks led by JPMorgan Chase is selling a $1.9B bond-and-loan deal to support Bausch + Lomb’s acquisition of a portfolio of eye medicines from Novartis (BBG)

• Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk raised $750M through its first dollar-denominated green bond sale (BBG)

• Tata Group’s jewelry unit Titan is considering selling its first rupee bond worth $362M (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Chinese refiner and petrochemicals producer Hengli Petrochemical agreed to restructuring deals worth $1.9B for subsidiary Kanghui New Material Technology (RT)

• Collapsed UK retailer Wilko will close its remaining 300 stores in the coming weeks after a rescue plan fell through (FT)

• Clothing retailer Soft Surroundings filed for bankruptcy; it plans to close its 44 stores and sell its online and catalog business to apparel company Coldwater Creek (WSJ)

Fundraising

• Brookfield Asset Management and Societe Generale are partnering to set up a $10.7B private debt fund (WSJ)

• Shuhei Abe, the founder of Sparx Group, is seeking to raise up to $2B by 2024 for Sparx Owners’ Commitment Fund to invest in well-run undervalued Japanese companies (BBG)

• Indian alternative investment manager Edelweiss Alternatives launched its first climate fund and is seeking $500M to invest in related projects of Indian companies (RT)

Crypto Corner

• The Reserve Bank of India is working with lenders to introduce new features to popularize its central bank digital currency, the e-rupee (RT)

• The CFTC charged three decentralized finance firms Opyn, ZeroEx., and Deridex for illegally allowing customers to trade digital-asset derivatives without registering (BBG)

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• Lenny Rachitsky shared 10 lessons that he learned while scaling his popular business newsletter to 500,000 subscribers.

• Jack Raines wrote about why the SEC is investigating Ryan Cohen for a possible Bed Bath & Beyond pump-and-dump.

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