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Good Morning,

BlackRock added Saudi Aramco’s CEO to its board, Goldman cut its probability of a US recession, the ECB expects a July rate hike but hasn’t made a decision on September, Apollo Global wants to target the world’s top family offices, Ford is cutting its F-150 prices, FedEx has a new CFO, and Netflix is well-positioned in the Hollywood strikes.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• Stocks ended higher as Wall Street braced for quarterly reports from some of the world’s biggest companies

  • The Dow climbed to its highest closing level in 2023

• Markets priced in a 97% chance of a 25 bps Fed rate hike next week

• Dollar traded at a near one-year low while the euro hit a seventeen-month peak

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Lockheed Martin

  • Wednesday: Goldman Sachs, Tesla, Netflix, IBM, United Airlines

  • Thursday: Johnson & Johnson, TSMC, American Airlines, Capital One

  • Friday: American Express

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Goldman Sachs cut probability of US recession in next 12 months (RT)

• BlackRock names Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser to board (CNBC)

• World economy in a difficult place but not destined to stay there - World Bank (RT)

• Analysts forecast a 7%+ decline in YoY S&P 500 earnings (FS)

• US money-market fund balances retreat from all-time high (BBG)

• NY Fed report finds Americans increasingly facing borrowing headwinds (RT)

• Americans have 10%-15% more in the bank than they did pre-pandemic (WP)

• ECB’s Nagel sees hike in July but data to decide September (BBG)

• Temu sued Shein in US over alleged antitrust violations (BBG)

• AT&T shares hit three-decade low as lead cables risk weighs (RT)

• BlackRock offers a vote to retail investors in its biggest ETF (FT)

• Cathie Wood’s ARK writes down Twitter stake by 47% (WSJ)

• Apollo Global builds team to target world’s top family offices (BBG)

• US companies score partial reprieve from global minimum tax deal (WSJ)

• Ford slashes prices of F-150 Lightning trucks as EV wars heat up (RT)

• Hollywood strikes hit theaters, but Netflix is best positioned (YF)

• US chip lobby presses Biden to refrain from further China curbs (RT)

• FedEx appoints new CFO (RT)

• Russia pulls out of Black Sea grain deal (FT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Microsoft is in talks with Activision Blizzard to extend their $69B acquisition contract for more time to clear regulatory hurdles, as the contract is set to expire today; meanwhile, a group of plaintiffs also asked the US Supreme Court to halt the merger (RT and RT)

• British telecom operator Proximus Group agreed to buy a 58% stake in Indian cloud communication service provider Route Mobile for $721M for access to high-growth markets (BBG)

• Mortgage data vendor Black Knight will sell its Optimal Blue data business for $700M to Canadian business software firm Constellation Software to address regulatory concerns over its acquisition by NYSE-owner Intercontinental Exchange (RT)

• Searchlight Capital Partners agreed to buy British asset manager Gresham House for $615M (RT)

• Irish building materials company Kingspan Capital agreed to buy a 51% stake in German building materials maker Steico from its founder for $282M (BBG)

• Online sports betting company Ladbrokes-owner Entain agreed to acquire US-based sports forecaster Angstrom Sports for up to $266M (RT)

• Indian mattress maker Sheela Foam will buy a 95% stake in rival Kurlon for $262M cash (RT)

• Commodities giant Glencore will buy the remaining 18% stake in PolyMet Mining for ~$73M (RT)

• State-owned Pakistan Refinery and local firm Air Link Communications are seeking to buy a 77% stake in Shell Pakistan, which Shell is selling due to economic challenges in Pakistan (RT)

• New Jersey wealth advisor Pathstone acquired multifamily office Veritable, which has 200 clients with over $75M in assets each (BBG)

• Ligand Pharmaceuticals offered $15M cash to acquire assets of dermatology-focused pharmaceutical company Novan, which filed for Chapter 11 reorganization (BW)

VC

• Thunes, a provider of a B2B payment infrastructure platform, raised a $72M Series C led by Visa, EDBI, and Endeavor Catalyst (FN)

• Herself Health, a primary care service for women aged 65+, raised a $26M Series A led by Accretive (TC)

• OrganOx, a startup developing a non-invasive machine perfusion platform to preserve donor livers, raised a $32.7M growth round led by Lauxera Capital Partners (FN)

• Web3 music platform Sound raised a $20M Series A led by a16z crypto (FN)

• South Korean blockchain startup Skyplay raised $10M from LDA Capital (FN)

• Figure, a Bay-area robotics startup, received a $9M investment from Intel Capital (TC)

• Cannabis-infused edible makers Botanica raised a $9M Series B led by KEY Investment Partners and GreenAxs Capital (FN)

• Flash, an Egyptian fintech startup, raised a $6M seed round led by Addition (TC)

• Portuguese stablecoin startup Ethena raised a $6M seed round led by Dragonfly (FN)

• Shardeum, an EVM-based layer-1 blockchain company deploying dynamic state sharding, raised a $5.4M round from Amber Group, Galxe, J17 Capital, and more (FN)

• Web3 wallet governance platform Narval raised a $4M seed round led by BlockTower VC (FN)

• Cakewalk, a startup providing SMBs with an IDAM solution, raised a $3.4M round led by Fly Ventures (FN)

• SpeedyBrand, an AI-powered content marketing platform for SMBs, raised a $2.5M round led by Y Combinator and Google Ventures (BW)

• Mascotte Health, a Miami-based veterinary tech startup, raised a $1.2M pre-seed round led by Nuwa Capital (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Israel’s Oddity Tech raised its target IPO valuation to $1.9B and is planning to raise up to $358M (RT)

• Indonesia’s largest cinema operator, PT Nusantara Sejahtera Raya, will raise $150M in its IPO (BBG)

Debt

• JPMorgan sold $4.5B of callable bonds, with a 128 bps premium on its six-year part (BBG)

• Wells Fargo sold $1.725B of callable bonds yielding 7.625% (BBG)

• Silver Lake is looking for $1.1B of debt financing to fund its takeover of German technology group Software AG (RT)

• Abu Dhabi renewable energy company Masdar hired Citi and First Abu Dhabi Bank as joint global coordinators for a potential $500M+ debut green bond sale (RT)

• JPMorgan is looking to sell a $350M loan backed by Manhattan’s HSBC Tower (MM)

• Mexican vehicle leasing company TIP México raised $236M in a two-part bond sale in the local market (LF)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• ViewRay, the maker of a radiation-therapy system for cancer patients, filed for bankruptcy due to extended unprofitability (WSJ)

Fundraising

• VC firm Westlake Village BioPartners launched a $450M fund to invest in early-stage biotech companies (RT)

• VC TLV Partners raised $250M for its fifth fund to invest in US-based Israeli founded early stage startups (RT)

Crypto Corner

• Customers Bancorp, a small Pennsylvania Bank, is a reluctant new favorite bank for the crypto industry (BBG)

• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong will meet with House Democrats to discuss digital asset legislation and other topics (BBG)

• SEC Chair Gary Gensler is ‘disappointed’ with a judge’s ruling that Ripple Lab’s XRP token wasn’t a security when sold to retail investors over an exchange (BBG)

Exec’s Picks

• Stream smarter with the deepest collection of documentaries at Curiosity Stream! Exec Sum readers can use code "ES23" for 25% off annual plans.

• Matt Levine covered Elon Musk’s attempt to sue Watchell for billing Twitter $90M for helping the company force Musk to acquire it (yes, this actually happened).

• Axios’s Felix Salmon explained how FedNow could change the US banking system.

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