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Good Morning,

Bed Bath & Beyond is making meme stocks cool again, Walmart and Home Depot had great earnings, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, US homebuilding is cooling, Chinese tech companies shared their algorithms with Chinese regulators, and Dodge is discontinuing the Charger and Challenger.

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Shoutout to today's sponsor, Stream. They're a great resource for analyst to conduct thorough due diligence for potential investments. Check em out here. More info below.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• Stocks mostly rose on Tuesday as investors reacted to better than expected retail earnings reports 

  • The Dow rose for a fifth straight session while the Nasdaq turned negative after a two-day winning streak 

  • Oil continued to fall with WTI crude reaching its lowest level since January

Earnings

• Walmart rose 5.1% after it beat estimates on both earnings and revenue and raised its fiscal year outlook less than a month after issuing a profit warning (WSJ)  

• The Home Depot also beat expectations, posting record quarterly sales and earnings, although it said customer transactions declined; its stock rose 4.1% on the day (CNBC)

• What we’re watching this week:

  • Today: Target, Lowe’s, Performance Food Group, Cisco Systems

  • Thursday: Kohl’s, Ross Stores, Arco

  • Friday: John Deere

• Full calendar here 

Headline Roundup

• Biden signed the $740B Inflation Reduction Act into law (AX)

• US homebuilding fell 9.6% in July amid soaring inflation and mortgage rates (WSJ)

• Cotton prices are rising sharply due to droughts (WSJ)

• China's ambassador warned US of Taiwan consequences (AX)

• Alibaba, ByteDance, Tencent and others shared details of their algorithms with China regulators for the first time (BBC)

• Dodge will discontinue its Challenger and Charger muscle cars next year (CNBC)

• Amazon accused the FTC of harassing Jeff Bezos and other Amazon executives (WSJ)

• Amazon will charge extra fee to certain sellers during holiday season (RT)

• American Airlines agreed to buy 20 planes from supersonic jet maker Boom Supersonic (WSJ)

• Bed Bath & Beyond shares have more than tripled in the past week (WSJ)

• Liz Cheney loses GOP primary, vows to keep Trump from White House (BBG)

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We also wanted to share with you an exclusive webinar we have coming up on Wednesday, August 24th.  We will be discussing the future of Investment Research and how AI is fundamentally changing the landscape. 

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Chinese media conglomerate Tencent is looking to sell most or all of its 17%, $24B stake in food-delivery giant Meituan (WSJ)

• Hong Kong–based conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises will kick off the sale of Australian power company Alinta Energy in a deal that could attract a ~$3B valuation (BBG)

• US brand management company Authentic Brands Group will buy UK lifestyle brand Ted Baker for ~$254M in a cut-price cash deal (BBG)

• PE firm Thoma Bravo is in early talks to acquire UK cybersecurity company Darktrace in an all-cash deal (BBG)

• The owners of health tech company Babylon Holdings are consider taking the company private less than a year after it went public (BBG)

VC

• Orna Therapeutics, a biotech company focused on circular RNA therapies, raised a $221M Series B from Merck, MPM Capital, and others (PRN)

• Guesty, a platform to manage property listings across multiple sites like Airbnb and Expedia, raised a $170M funding round led by Apax Digital Funds, MSD Partners, and Sixth Street Growth (TC)

• SAIC Mobility Robotaxi, a Chinese commercial robo taxi service, raised a $148M Series B at a $1B valuation led by SAIC Group (TC)

• Senda Biosciences, a biotech company seeking to use cell programming to create new medicines, raised a $123M Series C from Flagship Pioneering, the Samsung Life Science Fund, and others (PRN)

• Dianxiaomi, a Chinese e-commerce SaaS provider, raised a $110M Series D led by SoftBank Vision Fund II and Sequoia Capital China (TC)

• Pliops, a provider of data processors for cloud and enterprise data centers, raised a $100M Series D led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (GNW) 

• Pomelo, a fintech startup that is combining credit and international money transfer services, raised a $70M seed round: $20M in equity led by Founders Fund and A* Capital, and $50M in warehouse facility (PRN)

• GrowthSpace, a talent development platform, raised a $25M Series B led by Zeev Ventures (PRN)

• Arc, a company giving SaaS startups ‘a way to borrow, save, and spend in one place,’ raised a $20M Series A led by Left Lane (TC)

• Vividly, a trade promotion management tools provider, raised an $18M Series A co-led by 645 Ventures and Vertex Ventures US (TC)

• Omni, a cloud-powered business intelligence platform, raised a $17.5M Series A led by Redpoint (TC)

• Sync Computing, a deep tech and cloud infrastructure optimization company, raised a $15.5M Series A led by Costanoa Ventures (FSMS)

• Explo, a tool for building customized business intelligence dashboards, raised a $12M Series A led by Craft Ventures (TC)

• Chamberlain Coffee, the coffee-brand of YouTube phenomenon Emma Chamberlain, raised a $7M Series A led by Blazar Capital (FBS)

• Prolocor, a biotech company developing diagnostic tests for cardiovascular diseases, raised $5.2M in funding: a $3.2M seed round led by Green Park & Golf Ventures and a $2M Phase II grant from the National Institutes of Health (GNW)

• Ledgebrook, a Boston-based insurtech, raised a $4.2M seed round led by Brand Foundry Ventures (PRN)

• Violet, a cultural competence credentialing and upskilling platform for clinicians, raised a $4.1M seed round led by SemperVirens (PRN)

• Closinglock, a proptech and fintech startup focused on modernizing the real estate transaction process, raised a $4M seed round led by LiveOak Venture Partners (BW)

• Qeepsake, a New York-based family journaling app, raised a $2M seed round led by LaunchCapital (TC)

• Lori Systems, an African digital on-demand logistics and trucking company, raised an undisclosed pre-Series B at a $110M+ valuation with participation from Google's $50M Africa Investment Fund (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Sequoia-backed Indian insurer Digit filed for an IPO and aims to raise ~$440M (TC)

• Crypto custody firm BitGo is not entertaining takeover offers and may opt for an IPO instead (BBG)

• PAG, an Asia-focused PE firm backed by Blackstone, is considering a delay of its $2B planned IPO in Hong Kong amid market volatility (BBG)

SPAC

• Rubicon, a leading digital marketplace for waste and recycling, raised ~$197M through its business combination with Founder SPAC (GNW)

Debt

• Bankers of cloud computing company Citrix Systems are pitching investors a revised $15B debt financing deal to limit potential losses (BBG)

Fundraising

• VC firm Agya Ventures closed a $32M Fund I to invest in early-stage real estate and construction technology (PRN)

Crypto Corner

• Bitcoin miner Riot took a $349M Goodwill Impairment charge on acquisitions (CD)

• Chinese media conglomerate Tencent stopped sales on its NFT platform Huanhe amid mounting scrutiny (RT)

• The Fed issued additional guidance for banks considering activities involving cryptocurrencies (RT)

• Dogecoin and other dog-themed memecoins rally while crypto market cools off (TB)

Exec's Picks

• Join the free “Markets in Turmoil” live webinar at 7PM with David Green and Peter Tuchman (the Einstein of Wall Street) and guest speaker Dan Pipitone to help learn how to navigate this unpredictable market successfully with technical analysis and risk management. Check it out here.

• Thanks to China/Taiwan tensions, the future of the US's semiconductor supply is in jeopardy. Check out Mike Solana's piece covering what's at stake in Taiwan, and how the CHIPS Act could impact everything.

• From Milanos to Chelsea boots, Del Toro is here to help your shoe game close out the summer in style. Check them out here, and get free shipping and returns on all purchases over $100.

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:

Meme Cleanser

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