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The Fed is raising rates by 75 bps, 2Y Treasuries are trading at 2007 levels, home sales keep dropping, the dollar keeps climbing, US bank CEOs support the rate hikes, CVS and Walmart reached a $147M opioid settlement, the EPA wants tougher rules on big trucks, and Twitch is banning unlicensed gambling livestreams.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• The Fed raised rates by 75 bps, causing stocks to fall after a volatile trading day; all three major averages fell by 1.7%+

  • The Fed now expects its 'terminal rate' to reach 4.6%, and it plans to hike rates to 4.4% by next year to help fight high inflation

  • All major S&P 500 sectors finished in the negative yesterday

  • The 2Y Treasury topped 4.1%, the highest level since 2007

Earnings

• General Mills beat Q1 profit and earnings estimates and raised full-year forecast on upbeat demand despite high inflation; their stock rose ~6.6% (RT)

• Trip.com turned a profit in Q2 but revenue was down 32% YoY amid China's Covid resurgence; their stock was down 1.25% yesterday (FRB)

• What we're watching this week

  • Today: Accenture, Costco, FedEx, Manchester United 

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US existing home sales are down 0.4% MoM and 19.9% YoY in August, with house price growth cooling (RT)

• US mortgage rates hit 6.25%, the highest level since October 2008 (RT)

• Powell said the US housing market is headed for a 'correction' (RT)

• The dollar surged to a fresh two-decade high and the Euro slid to a two-decade low (RT)

• European manufacturers are shifting operations to the US amid high gas prices (WSJ)

• US bank CEOs backed Fed hikes in their congressional testimony (RT)

• Bank of Japan will keep ultra-low rates, despite global central bank trends and a weak yen (RT)

• CVS and Walmart reached a $147.5M opioid settlement with West Virginia; Walgreens and Kroger will go to trial (RT)

• Citigroup plans to wind down UK retail bank as part of strategic refresh (RT)

• Shanghai unveiled $257B worth of infrastructure investment projects (RT)

• Israel PM Yair Lapid will back a two-state solution in his UN speech today (AX)

• The EPA will consider tougher emissions rules for heavy trucks (RT)

• Meta aims to cut costs by at least 10% within next few months (RT)

• GM will close reservations for their electric Hummers after topping 90k (CNBC)

• Warner Music named departing YouTube business chief Robert Kyncl as its next CEO (WSJ)

• Twitch will ban unlicensed gambling livestreams after backlash (CNBC)

A Message From Plaid

The Entire Fintech Ecosystem, Summed Up

(Or should we say Exec Sum-ed Up. Nice.)

Whether you’re talking Amazon (the jungle) or Amazon (the company), ecosystems all have one thing in common: They’re big. 

And the fintech ecosystem is no exception.

To help navigate, Plaid just released the 2022 Fintech Spotlight report that covers everything from regular ol’ personal finances to crypto, alternative payment methods, and more. The fintech ecosystem can seem overwhelming – which is exactly why Plaid breaks it down into bite-sized pieces.

Download “The Fintech Spotlight 2022” by Plaid right here. 

This report covers the most need-to-know insights, analyses, and trends of all the most popular financial topics, including…

• Personal finance management

• Wealth

• Lending

• Consumer payments

• Crypto

• Banking

Let’s put it this way – if you work in finance… or run a business… or invest in crypto…if you have a bank account, this report has something useful for you.

Grab your copy here while you still can.

(And don’t forget to say thanks to Plaid)

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Germany agreed to nationalize its largest gas importer Uniper, taking the equivalent of a 99% stake worth ~$8B in the company (WSJ)

• French industrial company Schneider Electric agreed to buy the remaining ~40% of UK industrial software company Aveva that it does not already own for ~$4.36B (BBG)

• International Holding Co., a company controlled by Abu Dhabi’s royal family, offered to buy a 25% stake in Colombian food maker Grupo Nutresa for up to $2.15B (BBG)

• (W)NBA teams Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury owner Robert Sarver will sell both teams amid a harassment report; the Suns are currently valued at $1.8B (CNBC)

• An investment vehicle managed by Australia’s LendLease agreed to buy the new Deutsche Bank HQ building from Land Securities Group for $917M, a 9% discount from its March valuation (BBG)

• French billionaire Xavier Niel’s Atlas Investissement agreed to buy a ~2.5% stake in British telecom firm Vodafone for ~$850M (BBG)

• Property investor LXi REIT is in talks to buy 18 stores from British supermarket group Sainsbury's for ~$568M (RT)

• Insurance company AIA is in advanced talks to buy Philippine insurance firm MediCard at a potential $350M+ valuation (BBG)

• PE firm Intermediate Capital Group invested $240M in French EV charging firm Zeplug to become a majority shareholder (RT)

• Tech focused PE firm Vector Capital invested $100M in cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes (TC)

• Catering and gateway services provider SATS is in ongoing discussions to buy air cargo handler Worldwide Flight Services from Cerberus Capital (BBG)

VC

• Pie Insurance, a provider of workers’ compensation insurance for small businesses, raised a $315M Series D led by Centerbridge Partners and Allianz X (PRN)

• Brightflow AI, a fintech platform providing small business owners real-time cash flow analysis, raised $119M: $100M in debt from i80 Group, a $15M Series A led by Haymaker Ventures, and a previously un-announced $4.2M seed round led by Bonfire Ventures (PRN)

• MicroTransponder, a maker of wearable technology for people with neurological disorders, raised a $73M Series E led by US Venture Partners (PRN)

• Ceribell, a startup developing an EEG system for rapid seizure diagnosis, raised a $50M round led by Ally Bridge Group (PRN)

• Knoetic, a startup aiming to provide insights into HR data, raised a $36M Series B led by EQT Ventures (TC)

• Messari, a provider of crypto market intelligence products, raised a $35M Series B led by Brevan Howard Digital (PRN)

• Monos, a travel and sustainability first lifestyle brand, raised a $30M Series B led by venn growth partners (PRN)

• Ledgy, a startup building cap table management software for companies and their employees, raised a $22M Series B led by NEA (TC)

• Gig, a Berlin-based startup allowing companies to sell phone and data plans as part of their own branded mobile network subscriptions, raised a $20M Series A led by Gradient Ventures, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and others (TC)

• Noble, a no-code platform that enables companies to build and launch credit products, raised an $18M Series A led by Insight Partners (PRN)

• Superb AI, a training data platform for computer vision models, raised a $16M Series B led by Korea Development Bank and Premier Partners (PRN)

• Web3 chess platform Immortal Game raised $15.5M across two rounds led by TCG Crypto (TC)

• Voxel51, a data-centric ML software company, raised a $12.5M Series A led by Drive Capital, Top Harvest Capital, and Shasta Ventures (PRN)

• bitsensing, a South Korean 4D imaging radar solution company, raised a $10M Series A led by AF WPartners, ARGES Private Equity, and more (PRN)

• Blockchain-based supply chain network platform #dltledgers raised an $8.5M Series B round at a $100M+ (PRN)

• The Muse, a values-based job search and career development platform, raised an $8M round led by MBM Capital (PRN)

• CHEQ, a social payments platform for the restaurant and hospitality industry, raised an $8M seed round led by WestRiver Group (PRN)

• Kode Labs, a building systems and real estate platform, raised an $8M round led by I Squared Capital (TC)

• RKVST, a startup enabling companies to build verifiable digital supply chains, raised a $7.5M Series A from Ridgeline, Acadia Woods, Cyber Mentor Fund, and Long Run Capital (BW)

• Dame Products, a sexual wellness startup, raised a $7M Series A led by Amboy Street Ventures (TC)

• Future, a startup building a low-carbon economy financial rewards system, raised a $5.3M seed round led by Accomplice (PRN)

• Ivorian fintech startup Julaya raised a $5M pre-Series A extension round led by Speedinvest (TC)

• Block Party, a tool which automatically blocks bad actors on Twitter, raised a $4.8M seed round led by Stellation Capital (TC)

• Nodal, a surrogacy matching platform, raised $4.7M in funding led by Amplo (BW)

• Female-centric social crowdfunding platform AngeLink raised a $4.5M seed round (PRN)

• NFT investment app Sintra raised a $2M seed round led by Lemniscap (PRN)

• Kaiko Systems, a Berlin-based startup helping maritime shipping technical operations go paperless, raised a $2M seed round led by Schoeller Holdings, Vineta Ventures, A Round Capital, and more (TC)

• SecondSTAX, a Ghanaian fintech startup allowing investors to access capital markets outside their countries, raised a $1.6M pre-seed round led by LoftyInc Capital, Orbit54, STEMeIn, and more (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• EV maker VinFast is aiming to IPO in US 'sometime in 2023' (BBG)

Debt

• Real estate giant China Evergrande Group is considering transferring some assets to its property unit to settle some of the unit's debt (RT)

Fundraising

• Singaporean early-stage fintech VC firm Arbor Ventures raised a $186M fund (TC)

• SentinelOne, an AI endpoint security firm, launched SVentures, a $100M fund to invest in enterprise cybersecurity startups (TC)

Crypto Corner

• Binance CEO said the bitcoin bear market is 'healthy' for crypto industry long term (DC)

• Live streaming service Twitch will ban streaming of certain crypto gambling websites (CNBC)

Exec's Picks

• Tired of ESG Bullsh*t? Fortunately, there's a money manager that decided that B-A-D might be the better acronym for investors.The BAD ETF (NYSE: BAD) launched last December to let you invest in three industries: Betting, Alcohol, and Drugs. The case for these BAD industries remains strong for a simple yet important reason – they have historically offered attractive risk-adjusted returns. Want to to invest? Learn more about the BAD ETF fund details and sign up for their mailing list to get the latest fund insights and information.

• Trung Phan dropped a hysterical, but informative piece on the future of Linkedin as a social platform in his latest Bloomberg opinion piece.

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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