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Good Morning,

Liz Truss reversed her tax cut plans, ocean freight rates continue to fall, Poland wants trillions in WWII reparations from Germany, UBS CDS prices hit a decade high, GM sales rose 24% in Q3, Peloton is putting bikes in all Hiltons, Nvidia is ceasing activity in Russia, Elon Musk is getting dragged on twitter, and Kim K got clapped by an SEC fine.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• All three major averages closed up 2%+ yesterday to kick off October, a change of pace from last week’s end to September

  • The Dow had its best day since June 24, and the S&P 500 had its best day since July 27

  • The 10Y Treasury dropped to ~3.65%, a cool down after surpassing 4% last week

• The pan-European Stoxx 600 lost 0.6%, with the auto stocks sub-index down ~1.1%

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:

  • Thursday: Constellation Brands, Levi Strauss

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US manufacturing activity grew at its slowest pace in nearly 2.5 years in September (RT)

• Russian manufacturing activity grew at its fastest rate in 3.5 years in September (RT)

• Liz Truss reversed her tax cut plans for highest earners (AX)

• Credit Suisse CDS hit record high as shares tumble (FT)

• UBS CDS hit a decade high after Credit Suisse blow out (RT)

• World factory activity weakened last month amid global slowdown and inflation (RT)

• Ocean freight orders are down 20% for September and October amid drop in consumer demand (CNBC)

• A UN agency called on the Fed and other central banks to halt rate hikes (WSJ)

• Poland formally demanded ~$1.3T from Germany in WWII reparations (AJZ)

• US to announce new limits on chip technology exports to China (BBG)

• Overnight deposits held by Switzerland's central bank plunged ~$78B last week in the biggest ever weekly fall amid policy tightening (RT)

• Peloton will put bikes in every Hilton-branded hotel in the US (CNBC)

• Nvidia will cease all activities in Russia and relocate employees (RT)

• Ukrainian ambassador tells Elon Musk to "f*ck off" after he infuraites nation with a Twitter poll (CNBC)

• Coatue Management GP Matt Mazzeo left the firm to start his own investment fund to focus on early-stage startups (TI)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Investment group Prosus cancelled a $4.7B deal to buy Indian payments firm BillDesk after a collapse in valuations for major tech startups (BBG)

• Sumitovant Biopharma, a fully-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Pharma, offered to buy the remaining 48% of pharmaceutical company Myovant Sciences that its parent company does not already own in a potential $2.5B deal (BBG)

• Telecom company Vodafone said it’s in discussions with CK Hutchison, the owner of British telecom firm Three UK, about a potential merger of their British businesses that woud create the UK’s largest mobile operator (BBG)

• Aerospace and defense company L3Harris Technologies agreed to buy geostationary satellite company Viasat’s tactical data links division for ~$1.96B (BBG)

• JPMorgan will need to pay $1B if they want to purchase full ownership of China International Fund Mangement, its Chinese mutual fund venture, the Shanghai United Asset and Equity Exchange said in a statement on Tuesday (RT)

• Kennedy Lewis Investment Management offered to buy Mark Wahlberg-backed fitness chain F45 Training, which would take the company private, for $385M, which represents an almost 83% premium to its closing share price last Thursday (RT)

• Wafra, the alternative asset manager that invests on behalf of Kuwait, agreed to buy a minority stake in PE firm Oak Hill Capital from Jefferies (BBG)

• Canadian lumber producer Interfor agreed to buy sawmill company Chaleur Forest Products for $236.4M (RT)

• Phoenix Suns owner, Robert Sarver, has picked Moelis & Co to advise on the potential sale of the Phoenix Suns (NBA) and Mercury basketball (WNBA) franchises (BBG)

VC

• Robotics process automation startup Automation Anywhere raised $200M in funding from Silicon Valley Bank and Hercules Capital (PRN)

• SingleStore, a cloud-based database designed for data-intensive applications, raised a $146M Series F-2 led by Goldman Sachs (BW)

• Credit card payment automation startup Tally Technologies raised $80M at an $855M valuation in a Series D led by Sway Ventures (BBG)

• Online shopping rewards app ShopBack raised $80M from Singapore state investment fund Temasek (BBG)

• Beverage startup Liquid Death raised $70M at a $700M valuation in a financing round led by Science Ventures, with participation from other investors including Live Nation Entertainment and music group Swedish House Mafia (BBG)

• Loop Global, an electric vehicle charging infrastructure company, raised a $40M Series A-1 led by Fifth Wall Climate and Agility Ventures (BW)

• Privacy and security software company RealDefense raised $30M in financing from Sunflower Bank (BW)

• Immerok, a cloud service for real-time streaming data, raised a $17M seed round led by CUSP Capital, 468 Capital, Cortical Ventures, and others (TC)

• DeFi investment platform Exponential raised a $14M seed round led by Paradigm, with participation from investors such as FTX and Solana Ventures, and 80 angel investors (including yours truly, Litquidity) (FRT)

• Polco, a data-driven civic participation platform, raised a $14M round led by Mercury Fund (BW)

• Acurable, a wearable medical device company, raised an $11M Series A led by Kibo Ventures (BW)

• South African Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) startup Talk360 raised a $3M extension led by HAVAÍC, bringing the current seed round to $7M (TC)

• PropTech home buying startup Ownly raised a $2.5M seed round led by Bluesky Equities (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Porsche shares fell below its IPO price after going public last week (RT)

SPAC

• Solar technology firm Complete Solaria agreed to merge with Freedom Acquisition I in an $888M deal (BBG)

Fundraising

• VC firm 83North raised $400M for its latest fund (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• Kim Kardashian will pay $1.26M to settle crypto charges against the SEC, for failing to mention being compensated for promotions (AX)

• NFT sales plunged 60% QoQ in Q3 (RT)

• US Treasury is encouraging new laws to address crypto regulation gaps (RT)

Exec's Picks

• DeFi enables anyone to perform jobs that were previously reserved for banks, but investing in DeFi is complex. Exponential is fixing this through their multichain platform that makes it incredibly easy to find, assess, and invest in DeFi yield opportunities. Check out Exponential here.

• Over the weekend, Josh Brown dropped a fantastic piece covering all of the craziness that we have seen in financial markets over the last year. Give "You weren't supposed to see that" a read.

• If you're in town for NYC Tech Week next week, come check out the event that I'm co-hosting with Republic and Carta on Tuesday night by clicking here! Full week's event schedule is found here.

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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