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Good Morning,

Inflation cooled to 3%, fund giants are betting against the dollar, Musk launched a new AI company, remote work is killing office values, Domino’s will use Uber for food deliveries, Disney extended Iger’s contract through 2026, and ARK hit an 11-month high.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks rose yesterday on a low US inflation print that weakened the case for more Fed interest rate hikes

  • All three major US indexes hit their highest level since April 2022

• Traders continue to price in a 92% chance of a 25 bps rate hike at the Fed's July meeting

• Dollar index fell 1.2% to its lowest level in 15 months

• Yen is up 3.5% MTD, on track for its best month in a year

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: PepsiCo, Delta

  • Friday: JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, BlackRock, State Street, UnitedHealth

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Inflation eased to 3% in June, slowest pace in two years (WSJ)

• Gap in borrowing costs between developed and emerging markets hit a 16-year low (FT)

• Fund titans are betting everything against the dollar (BBG)

• Mexico surpassed China as the top US trading partner (AX)

• Elon Musk takes aim at OpenAI with xAI launch (RT)

• Metals tycoon Gupta accused Trafigura of ‘devising and proposing’ $590M nickel fraud scheme (FT)

• More employers are cutting workers’ hours (WP)

• China's Huawei poised to overcome US ban with return of 5G phones (RT)

• Remote work will wipe out $800B from office values - McKinsey (BBG)

• JPMorgan hires dozens of bankers to serve start-ups and capitalize on SVB collapse (FT)

• Bank of Korea holds rates, to keep policy restrictive (RT)

• Global accounting firms set up shop in India's smaller cities (RT)

• Disney extends CEO Bob Iger's contract through 2026 (WSJ)

• Chinese hackers spied on State Department (WSJ)

• Cathie Wood's ARK fund hits 11-month high as inflation ebbs (RT)

• Amazon Prime Day sales rise as deep discounts tempt inflation-hit shoppers (RT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• The FTC plans to appeal a ruling by a federal judge that allows Microsoft's $69B acquisition of Activision Blizzard to proceed (BBG)

• US chipmaker Broadcom won conditional EU antitrust approval for its $61B acquisition of cloud computing firm VMware after offering remedies to help rival Marvell Technology (RT)

• Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is in talks to join KKR’s $25B bid for Telecom Italia’s landline network (BBG)

• BlackRock and KKR are nearing a sale of their 40% stake in Abu Dhabi National Oil’s oil pipeline to sovereign wealth fund ADQ in a deal estimated to be worth over $4B (BBG)

• Temasek-owned PSA International canceled plans to sell its ~$4B, 20% minority stake in the ports business of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings due to economic headwinds (BBG)

• Investment firm Wellington Management is in talks to invest in Kim Kardashian’s clothing brand Skims at a ~$4B valuation, which may be the last funding round ahead of an IPO (RT)

• Buyout group Cinven is considering selling a stake or IPOing wealth manager True Potential, which was last valued at $2.6B (RT)

• UK mobile bank Monzo Bank is exploring a potential combination with Nordic peer Lunar Group, which was last valued at $2.2B (BBG)

• French multinational retailer Carrefour agreed to buy the Cora and Match supermarkets chains in France from Belgian retailer Louis Delhaize Group in a $1.2B deal (RT)

• French defense and technology group Thales is in exclusive talks to buy aerospace supplier Cobham Aerospace Communications for $1.1B (RT)

• Investment manager Angelo Gordon & Co is exploring a sale of Benihana, a US restaurant chain known for its Japanese sushi and teppanyaki, for at least $600M (RT)

• Renewable energy producer Sonnedix is buying a Chilean photovoltaic generation portfolio for $550M from Italy’s largest utility, Enel (RT)

• Singapore’s Thomson Medical Group agreed to buy Vietnamese hospital operator FV Hospital for as much as $381M (BBG)

• Former sports minister Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Musaid Al Saud is selling Premier League newcomer Sheffield United for $221M (BBG)

• Billionaire Michael Hintze’s CQS is exploring selling partial stakes in its $15B fund business (BBG)

• Disney is open to selling their traditional TV assets (CNBC)

VC

• Arthrosi Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised a $75M Series D led by Guangrun Health Industry (FN)

• Bobbie, an organic infant formula company, raised a $70M Series C led by PowerPlant Partners and others (TC)

• Tenpoint Therapeutics, a startup seeking to restore vision through cell-based therapeutics, raised a $70M Series A led by British Patient Capital, F-Prime Capital, and Sofinnova Partners (BW)

• Forensic big-data science startup Oritain raised a $57M round led by Highland Europe (TC)

• IT management company InvGate raised a $35M growth round led by Riverwood Capital (TC)

• AI model training and stress-testing startup Prolific raised a $32.5M round co-led by Partech and Oxford Science Enterprises (TC)

• Silo, a startup helping food supply chain companies manage their finances, raised a $32M Series C led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (TC)

• Allonnia, a startup extracting value from waste, raised a $30M Series A extension led by Bison Ventures (BW)

• Fort Lauderdale-based tech company CarePredict raised a $29M Series A-3 led by Medtech Convergence Fund and Aspire Healthtech Partners (FN)

• Bedrock, an autonomous underwater vehicle startup, raised a $25.5M Series A co-led by Northzone and Primary Venture Partners (TC)

• Microoled, a manufacturer of OLED microdisplays, raised a $23.4M round led by Jolt Capital, Bpifrance’s Innovation Defense Fund, and Cipio Partners (FN)

• Affect Therapeutics, a startup providing addiction treatment for the digital age, raised a $16M Series A led by ARTIS Ventures (FN)

• Certificial, an insurance verification company, raised $15M in funding led by Nyca Partners (FN)

• Cavli Wireless, a leading cellular IoT semiconductor company, raised a $10M Series A led by Chiratae Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures (BW)

• Embedded InsurTech startup Hepster raised an $11.1M Series B led by Element Ventures, Seventure Partners, and Claret Capital Partners (FN)

• Voice cloning platform Resemble AI raised an $8M Series A led by Javelin Venture Partners (TC)

• Eureka Health, a provider of a community dedicated to helping chronic disease patients share experiences and discover treatments, raised $7M in funding led by Khosla Ventures (FN)

• Lantern, a B2B platform combining a customer data platform and customer success tools, raised a $6.8M seed round led by Primary Ventures and Moxxie Ventures (TC)

• CapStack, a startup aiming to build an integrated operating system for banks, raised a $6M round led by Fin Capital (TC)

• Blockchain infrastructure startup Artela raised a $6M seed round led by Shima Capital (BW)

• Gamercraft, an AI-driven skill-based competitive gaming platform, raised a $5M seed round led by the co-founders of Alienware (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Nvidia is in talks with SoftBank Group to help anchor the IPO of chip designer Arm (BBG)

• Brazil’s JBS, the world’s largest meat packer, is planning to list in New York and offered a ~$454M one-time dividend payment to shareholders for their support (RT)

• SoftBank Group is exploring a possible US listing for its Japanese PayPay mobile payments business (BBG)

• Lemon Sky Studios, a Malaysian art and animation studio behind video games like Final Fantasy XVI and Marvel’s Spider-Man, is planning an IPO on the local stock exchange (RT)

Debt

• Greece raised $3.86B from a 15-year syndicated bond issue at 4.45% (GR)

• Dutch light chips company Smart Photonics received $110M in debt funding from the Dutch government and industry players including chip equipment giant ASML and chipmaker NXP (RT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Monster Beverage won bankruptcy court approval to acquire former rival Bang Energy out of Chapter 11 for $362M (BBG)

• Top shareholder Ajay Singh will inject $61M into troubled Indian budget airline SpiceJet in exchange for shares, convertible securities or share warrants on a preferential basis (RT)

Fundraising

• Audax Private Equity raised $7.8B for two funds: $5.5B for its latest middle-market buyout fund and $774M for its debut lower middle-market buyout fund (PI)

• Suffolk Technologies, a VC platform affiliated with Suffolk Construction, closed a $110M inaugural fund to invest in seed and Series A startups focused on the construction sector (WSJ)

Crypto Corner

• Two wallets linked to the US government and the seizure of the online black market Silk Road moved $300M in Bitcoin (CD)

• The European Banking Authority told crypto stablecoin issuers to take immediate measures to comply with EU crypto regulations coming into effect in a year (BBG)

Exec’s Picks

• PE firms don’t improve the operational efficiencies of their companies as much as they’d like you to think, according to Dan Rasmussen.

• Cal Newport joined Derek Thompson’s Plain English podcast to discuss how the digital workspace broke our brains.

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