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US national debt topped $31T, US trade deficit hit its lowest level in over a year, mortgage applications dropped 14% last week, global bond funds are facing their largest outflows in two decades, Apollo and Sixth Street are no longer in talks with Musk about financing his Twitter purchase, and Seattle overtook Boston as the US's 3rd richest city by household income.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks were unable to hold onto their two-day gains, as the three major averages closed yesterday’s trading session negative

• Oil rose to a 3-week high as OPEC+ agreed to deep cuts and US stockpiles fell

• On Friday, we'll receive September's labor market report

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Constellation Brands, Levi Strauss

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US national debt topped $31T for the first time (NYT)

• Businesses added 208k jobs in September, better than the expected 200k and ahead of August's upwardly revised 185k (CNBC) 

• US services industry slowed modestly in September, while business input prices fell to a 1.5-year low (RT) 

• US trade deficit narrowed in August to the lowest level in over a year amid falling imports (RT)

• US mortgage applications dropped 14% last week, with rates rising for seventh straight week to a 16 year high (BBG)

• Global bond funds faced $175.5B in total outflows YTD, the biggest outflow in two decades (RT)

• Swiss National Bank is closely monitoring Credit Suisse situation (RT)

• Banks financing Musk's Twitter deal face hefty losses (RT)

• UK's credit outlook cut to negative by Fitch on fiscal risk (BBG)

• Grubhub and Gopuff are teaming up to expand delivery (TC)

• Seattle overtook Boston as third-richest US city by household income (BBG)

• SpaceX launched a new crew to the ISS for NASA (AX)

• Soaring egg prices is forcing French food industry to change recipes (RT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Blackstone is in talks to buy part of manufacturing giant Emerson's commercial and residential solution business assets for between $5B-$10B (RT)

• Industrial-staffing company EmployBridge agreed to buy internet services company IAC’s app-based staffing company Bluecrew; the combined company is expected to generate $4B+ in pro-forma revenue (BBG)

• Macquarie is still in talks with Italy’s state lender, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, about joining its multibillion-euro offer for Telecom Italia’s grid, a deal aimed at building a single ultra-broadband network (BBG)

• Brookfield Asset Management is in advanced talks to buy Hong Kong-based clothing label maker Trimco from Affinity Equity Partners for up to $1B (BBG)

• Japanese bank Mizuho is in talks to buy a ~20% stake in Japanese conglomerate Rakuten’s securities arm that could be worth ~$554M (BBG)

• Spanish infrastructure firm Sacyr will explore divestments, including the sale of 49% of its services unit (BBG)

VC

• Gourmey, a startup working on lab-grown foie gras, raised a $48M Series A led by Earlybird Venture Capital (TC)

• IriusRisk, a threat modeling platform, raised a $29M Series B led by Paladin Capital Group (TC)

• EcoCart, a startup building infrastructure for sustainable e-commerce, raised a $14.5M Series A led by Fifth Wall Climate (TC)

• Qunnect, a startup building quantum secure networking technology, raised an $8M Series A led by Airbus Ventures (PRN)

• Global neo-banking platform Vance raised a $5.8M seed round led by Hummingbird Ventures (ET)

• Cloud-based real estate brokerage Pinnacle Realty Advisors raised a $5M seed round led by Launchpad Capital (BW)

• Halp, an international college admissions coaching platform, raised a $4M seed round led by Lerer Hippeau and Serena Ventures (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Spanish hydrogen solutions specialist Calvera is considering an IPO in Spain that could raise up to $149M (BBG)

SPAC

• Businessman Bill Foley is seeking to give back investors ~$2.1B he raised for Austerlitz Acquisition Corporation II and Austerlitz Acquisition Corporation I (BBG)

• LAMF Global Ventures Corp. I, a SPAC co-led by George Soros’s nephew, is in preliminary talks with EPL team Everton FC about a deal (BBG)

Debt

• Apollo and Sixth Street are no longer in talks with Elon Musk to provide financing for his proposed buyout of Twitter (RT)

• Edotco, the wireless tower business of Malaysian telecoms group Axiata, is considering raising up to $700M in loans (BBG)

Fundraising

• Amazon is investing in outside VC funds for the first time, putting $150M in firms that back underrepresented founders (RT)

• European VC firm Newion raised ~$128M for their fourth fund to invest in ~20 new early-stage startups focused on B2B software (PYMT)

• Ex-Greylock GP Sarah Guo raised $101M to debut her VC firm Conviction Partners and plans to invest between $1M-10M in AI startups up to the Series A stage (TI)

Crypto Corner

• EU Parliament voted in favor of using blockchain to fight tax evasion and coordinate crypto tax policy (CT)

• Crypto HF 3AC's liquidator took possession of the Starry Night NFT wallet (CD)

• Ex-Tory party Treasurer blamedBank of England money printing for Bitcoin bubble (TG)

Exec's Picks

• There has been a wild scandal going on in the world of chess recently, and a recent investigation shows that Hans Moke Niemann may have cheated as much as 100 times. Check out The Wall Street Journal's piece on the story.

• The Information's Akash Pasricha broke down how more tech IPOs from 2021 burn cash today than companies that went public in 2019 and 2020, providing more data around how much of last year's IPO market was a bubble. Check out the piece here.

• Looking to break into investment banking or private equity? You'll want to have your financial modeling skills sharp. Wall Street Prep's self-study courses are the same curriculum major investment banks use to train their new hires. Check out their courses here and get 15% off when you use code "LITQUIDITY".

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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