Together with

Good Morning,

Great weekend of golf, brunch, and relaxation. Quite the contrast to my entire feed seemingly being down in Miami for the Bitcoin conference. 

WarnerMedia and Discovery complete their merger, Musk wants to turn Twitter's HQ into a homeless shelter, France is heading into an election runoff, and Scottie Scheffler won the Masters with a four-putt on hole 18.

Big week for economic data, with March's CPI and PPI numbers coming out over the next couple of days.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

• US markets will look to rebound this week after closing last week in the red, the tech-heavy Nasdaq led the decline by dropping 3.9%

• Economic data will be a key point of focus for investors, with fresh data being released across multiple fronts all week

  • The March consumer price index data will be released tomorrow, and the producer price index data will follow on Wednesday

• Geopolitical developments also continue to be a driver for markets, with the Russia-Ukraine war continuing to impact oil and commodity prices while Covid lockdowns in China worsen supply chain issues

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week: 

  • Tues: Carmax

  • Wed: Delta, BlackRock, JPMorgan, Rent the Runway, Bed Bath & Beyond

  • Thurs: TSMC, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Citi, Morgan Stanley, PNC

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Fed’s Mester sees US inflation rate at 2%+ into 2023 (BBG)

• Fauci says it’s up to each person to assess their Covid risk now (BBG)

• ‘Sonic 2’ grabs $71M as biggest Covid-era kids movie (BBG)

• Joe & The Juice enters Middle East market ahead of IPO (BBG)

• WarnerMedia, Discovery complete merger, become Warner Bros Discovery (RT)

• Amazon’s drone delivery service is hit by crashes and safety concerns (BBG)

• Geothermal powerhouse Iceland struggles with lack of electricity (BBG)

• Musk’s idea for Twitter homeless shelter wins support from Bezos (BBG)

• JetBlue, Alaska trim schedules as airlines attempt smoother summer (WSJ)

• France’s Macron and Le Pen head for cliffhanger April 24th election runoff (RT)

• Scottie Scheffler wins his first Masters championship (NYT)

A Message From Nexo

Inflation is over 7%, and your bank is only offering you 0.5% APR on your savings account. That’s a great way to lose purchasing power every year. It’s time to look for investment options that aren’t guaranteed to lose to inflation.

Did you know that you can earn up to 17% APR through Nexo? You read that right. By holding crypto in your Nexo wallet, you can actually outpace inflation.

Nexo supports 38 cryptocurrencies, and they even offer up to 0.5% cashback on your crypto purchases. Come see why 4M users trust Nexo with their crypto, and open your Nexo account today!

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Indonesian online travel booking company Tiket.com is considering a potential merger with e-commerce platform Blibli; an IPO of the combined company could raise $1B (BBG)

• UK mortgage brokers London & Country and Habito are in talks about a possible combination; Habito was last valued at $180M (BBG)

• Credit Agricole agreed to buy a 9.2% stake in Banco BPM (BBG)

• The owners of low-cost internet services provider TalkTalk are exploring strategic options including a potential sale (BBG)

VC

• GoImpact, an ESG and sustainable finance startup, raised a Series A at a $22M valuation led by Oriental Watch Holdings (PRN)

• Cross border payments startup SwooshTransfer raised a ‘several-million dollar’ seed round led by Sequoia China and K2VC (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Fleet management company G7 is weighing a potential $500M Hong Kong IPO (BBG)

• Flying motorbike maker ALI Technologies is preparing for a Japan IPO (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• Binance approved in principle by Abu Dhabi as digital asset broker (TBC)

• Bitcoin 2022 Miami: mining gets its moment under the sun (CD)

• Crypto industry’s growing sway in shaping US states’ laws (CD)

• Coinbase suspends buy orders in India days after launch (TC)

Exec's Picks

• Alts - There's a million newsletters about stocks. Alts is about the world of alternative assets. These guys analyze the heck out of alternative investments and show you what's good. Subscribe to Alts for free.

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've got 40+ jobs spanning IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

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