Good Morning,

Stocks ripped yesterday, China holdings of US debt fell below $1T, gas prices are going down, Twitter and Elon will have a five-day trial in October, the UK is getting rekt by a heat wave, Netflix *only* lost 970K subscribers, and a new ETF that will lever up to invest in SPACs hit the market.

Quick message from Lit: I'm always looking to partner with exciting companies that are building awesome products or delivering value to our target audience. If you want to explore partnerships, you can fill out a quick form here. If you're a startup looking for strategic capital on your cap table, send me a note at [email protected].

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• Stocks rallied as investors reacted positively to a host of company earnings reports

  • The main benchmarks saw their strongest advances in a month while small caps had their best day in 18 months

  • All three major indexes have risen more than 5% from their lows in mid-June, but remain heavily down on the year

• The euro bounced back from dollar parity, now trading at $1.02

Earnings

• Johnson & Johnson fell 1.5% after the company beat profits and sales expectations but reduced its earnings outlook for the year (RT)

• Netflix beat Q2 subscriber expectations, losing 970K subscribers instead of an expected 2M, and the company is forecasting positive user growth this period; their stock surged as much as 8% in after-hours trading (CNBC)

• What we’re watching this week:

  • Today: Tesla, United Airlines

  • Thursday: AT&T, American Airlines, Snap, Capital One

  • Friday: Verizon, American Express, Twitter

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• China holdings of US debt fell below $1T for the first time since 2010 (CNBC)

• Fund managers this month cut their allocations to equities to the lowest level since October 2008 (FT)

• National average gas prices fell below $4.50 per gallon, a two-month low (AX)

• Ukraine will request to delay its foreign debt repayments today to preserve cash for their conflict with Russia (FT)

• Twitter’s motion to expedite its lawsuit against Elon Musk was approved; a five-day trial is set to begin in October (BBG)

• Residential construction in the US slowed for the second straight month in June, with housing starts falling 2% (WSJ)

• The Chinese government is courting European companies to raise funds on Chinese stock exchanges as they seek to increase foreign listings (BBG)

• Russia fined Google $373M for repeated failure to remove content that was deemed illegal related to the war in Ukraine (RT)

• The UK government said it is moving to ease rules on banks, insurers and investors to help London remain Europe’s financial hub and revive the country’s stalling economy (WSJ)

• The RiverNorth Enhanced Pre-Merger SPAC ETF 'SPCZ' launched last week, deploying leverage to invest in pre-merger SPACs (BBG)

• The UK is experiencing record-breaking temperatures as a heat wave sweeps across Europe (WSJ)

• Cathie Wood's ARK to close Transparency ETF (WSJ)

• Facebook is shifting resources from News to focus on Creator Economy (WSJ)

A Message From Litquidity

As the market continues to be a volatile place and companies continue to pull back on spending, it's worth remembering that effective marketing can result profitable growth.

Through years of experience and an analytical mindset, we can be an effective marketing partner to help you grow and meet your goals. If you're interested in partnering with us across social media, email newsletters, podcasts, and other mediums, fill out our intake form and we'll get back to you ASAP (assuming Karl isn't jammed up working on some live deals). Click the button below:

On another note, as a scout for Bain Capital Ventures, I'm always chatting with early-stage startup founders across the fintech, web3, ecommerce, SaaS, and creator economy verticals. If you're a founder looking for a strategic investor on your cap table, hit me up over email with your pitch at [email protected]. Let's build 🤝

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• The French government offered to pay $9.85B to take full control of utility company Électricité de France, of which they already own 84% (RT)

• UK's business department approved US aerospace engineering firm Parker-Hannifin's $7.57B takeover of London-based defense firm Meggitt (RT)

• Veritas Capital is in exclusive talks to acquire payment technology company NCR Corp, which is currently valued at ~$4.5B (WSJ)

• The Carlyle Group is exploring a sale of the remainder of aerospace solutions business Sequa Corporation, which could fetch ~$2B including debt (BBG)

• Financial services firm Jefferies will spin off its holdings in oil company Vitesse Energy at a $427M valuation and sell forest products company Idaho Timber in two transactions at a combined sale price of $239M in an effort to simplify operations and focus on investment banking (YHOO)

• Mining company Polymetal International plans to sell its Russian assets amid risk of sanctions (BBG)

• Netflix acquired Australian animation studio Animal Logic, the studio behind movies Happy Feet and The Lego Movie (TC)

• E-cigarette manufacturer and Juul rival NJOY hired bankers to advise on a possible sale (WSJ)

VC

• Casavo, a digital residential platform that is redesigning the experience of selling and buying homes in Europe, raised ~$409M: a ~$102M Series D and $307M in debt, led by Exor (TC)

• TAE Technologies, a company hoping to revolutionize electricity generation through nuclear fusion, raised a $250M Series G-2 round from Chevron, Google, Reimagined Ventures, and others (CNBC)

• Halborn, a blockchain security company, raised a $90M Series A led by Summit Partners (TB)

• Cartography Biosciences, a precision medicine company creating immunotherapies, raised a $57M Series A led by 8VC (BW)

• Alleaves, a cannabis ERP seed-to-sale technology platform, raised a $40M Series A led by The Eleven Fund (PRN)

• AnyMind, a Japanese company which helps brands and influencers’ online operations, raised a $36M Series D from JIC Venture Growth Investment, Japan Post Investment, Nomura SPARX Investment, and others (TC)

• Gordion Software, a startup that builds software to remove friction in air travel, raised a $25M Series A led by ​​Accomplice and Vinyl Capital (PW)

• Persephone Biosciences, a biotech startup compiling a library of the human microbiome, raised a $15M seed round led by First Bight Ventures and Propel Bio Partners (TC)

• Bloom, a Sudan-based fintech that offers a high-yield savings account and adjacent digital banking services, raised a $6.5M seed round from Visa, Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital, and others (TC)

• Revterra Corporation, a startup developing a grid-stabilizing kinetic battery, raised a $6M Series A led by Equinor Ventures (PRN)

• HiddenLayer, a security provider for machine learning models, raised a $6M seed round led by Ten Eleven Ventures (TC)

• Push Security, a security platform for employees using multiple SaaS apps, raised a $4M seed round led by Decibel (TC)

SPAC

• Biotechnology company NewAmsterdam Pharma is in talks to go public through a merger with Frazier Lifesciences Acquisition Corp in a $700M+ deal (BBG)

Debt

• PIMCO purchased over $1B of debt to back Apollo Global Management's ~$2.6B acquisition of French payments company Worldline (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• The German government is nearing a $5B bailout deal with energy giant Uniper, which would result in a ~30% stake in the company (BBG)

Fundraising

• Munich-based AM Ventures closed a $100M fund committed to the early growth stages of industrial and commercial 3D printing applications (TC)

Crypto Corner

• French Bank BNP Paribas is entering the crypto custody space via a partnership with Swiss digital asset safekeeping firm Metaco (CD)

• Crypto trading firm TPS Capital denied ties to insolvent crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, but court documents by 3AC liquidators indicate a web of transactions (CD)

Exec's Picks

• Earlier this week, The Atlantic's Derek Thompson wrote a great piece breaking down how contradictory the economy is right now. Check out The Everything-Is-Weird Economy.

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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