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Good Morning,

Hollywood studios have offered writers a new deal, Burry is shorting the market again, UBS will pay billions to settle a DOJ mortgage-bond case, China cut key rates, hedge funds are preparing for a legal battle with the SEC over fee disclosures, and physical markets are helping push oil to $90.

Work shouldn’t be the only hard thing in your life. If something else hasn’t been, today’s sponsor, Hims, might be able to help.

Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks rallied yesterday led by tech stocks as investors awaited big retail earnings this week

  • The Nasdaq led the US indexes with a 1.1% gain thanks to strong-performing chip stocks

• Asian stocks dropped due to continued concerns about China’s economy, as Hong Kong’s HSI fell 1.6%, Singapore’s STI fell 1.4%, and Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.3%

Earnings

• Foxconn beat analyst earnings estimates thanks to a hot AI sector, but it downgraded its full-year revenue outlook to a slight decline due to global economic uncertainty, especially China (CNBC)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Tuesday: Home Depot, Suncor Energy, Sea Limited, CAVA Group, H&R Block

  • Wednesday: Cisco Systems, TJX, JD.com, Progressive, Target

  • Thursday: Walmart, Applied Materials, Ross Stores, Dole, Keysight Technologies

  • Friday: Deere & Company, Palo Alto Networks, Estee Lauder, XPeng

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Hollywood studios offer writers a new deal with push from Netflix, Iger to end strike (BBG)

• Michael Burry of ‘The Big Short’ fame reveals potential big bets against the market, tech stocks (CNBC)

• Oil’s push to $90 gets lift from physical markets everywhere (BBG)

• UBS to pay $1.44B to settle DOJ mortgage-bond case (BBG)

• China cuts key rates as weak batch of July data darkens economic outlook (RT)

• Out of options and money, Argentina presses the panic button (BBG)

• China’s deepening housing problems spook investors (WSJ)

• Steel CEO who fights with Goldman takes on US industry icon (BBG)

• More Americans are ending up homeless - at a record rate (WSJ)

• Hedge funds prepare for legal battle with SEC over fee disclosures (BBG)

• Cruise vehicles cause weekend traffic jam one day after California approves 24-7 robotaxi service (CNBC)

• As World Cup breaks records, Adidas, Nike navigate bumps in retail demand (RT)

• Ford taps Apple exec to build high-margin digital services (RT)

• US ambassador meets with detained WSJ reporter (WSJ)

• Lloyd Blankfein says he ‘can’t imagine’ returning to Goldman Sachs (CNBC)

• Trump indicted over attempts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential vote (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Abu Dhabi National Oil is prepared to boost its informal offer to acquire German plastics and chemicals maker Covestro to ~$12.7B after Covestro rejected its previous ~$12B offer for being too low (BBG)

• Privately-held industrial conglomerate Esmark made a $7.8B cash offer to buy US Steel Corp., which rejected a $7.3B offer from Cleveland-Cliffs on Sunday (RT)

• Mastercard agreed to acquire a minority stake in South African telecom MTN’s mobile money arm in a deal that values the fintech arm at $5.2B (RT)

• Uruguay-based Dlocal, a $3.7B market cap payment services provider to companies in emerging markets, is exploring options including a potential sale (RT)

• The Agnelli family’s Dutch holding company Exor bought a 15% stake in troubled Dutch medical company Koninklijke Philips for $2.8B (BBG)

• Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed new $726M, $71M, and $17M stakes in homebuilders DR Horton, NVR, and Lennar (RT)

• Silverbow Resources will acquire US natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy’s remaining assets in Texas’ Eagle Ford basin for $700M (RT)

• PE firm Apax Partners will buy Bazooka Candy Brands from former Disney CEO Michael Eisner for ~$700M, including debt (WSJ)

• Index provider MSCI will acquire a remaining 66% stake in Burgiss Group, a provider of data and analytics solutions for investors, for $697M cash (RT)

• Dubai-based startup NWTN will invest $500M in Chinese defaulted property developer Evergrande’s EV unit NEV in exchange for a 28% stake in the company and a majority of the board (BBG)

• United Airlines and Ark Investment Management invested in the oversubscribed PIPE for Archer Aviation’s $215M round led by Stellantis (BW)

• Flooring retailer LL Flooring, which has a market cap of $115M, jumped 15% after announcing that it was exploring alternatives (MW)

• US food product and pet food giant Mars will acquire German medical diagnostics provider Synlab’s veterinary business (RT)

• Insight Investment Group will acquire French carmaker Renault's RCI Banque division, a Russian leasing subsidiary (RT)

VC

• Kenyan low-income household product and finance provider d.light raised $125M in financing through a securitization facility from the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank Group (FN)

• Match Masters, the multiplayer match-3 puzzle game, raised a $100M round led by Haveli Investments (BW)

• Xeltis, a Dutch medtech startup developing implants to enable the natural creation of living vessels, raised an additional $13.6M in a final close of a D2 round led by the European Investment Council (FN)

• Caelux, a startup using perovskite tech for solar energy, raised a $12M Series A3 led by Temasek (FN)

• CodeScene, a Swedish SaaS startup specializing in software engineering intelligence, raised an $8.2M round led by Neqst (FN)

• EthStorage, a remote Ethereum storage scalability startup, raised a $7M seed round at a $100M valuation led by dao5 (FN)

• German restaurant app Neotaste raised a $6.4M Series A led by Burda Principal Investments (FN)

• Stable Money, an Indian wealthtech platform, raised a $5M seed round led by Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed (FN)

• Xverse, a Hong Kong-based Bitcoin Web3 wallet supporting Ordinals and BRC-20 inscriptions, raised a $5M seed round led by Jump Crypto (FN)

• Clean Food Group, a food tech startup delivering sustainable oils and fats solutions, raised a $2.9M round from Doehler Group, Alianza Team, Agronomics, and SEED Innovations (FN)

• Fieldwork Robotics, a startup developing harvesting tools for berry farms, raised a $1.9M seed round from Elbow Beach Capital, Frontier IP, and others (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• European PE giant CVC Capital Partners revived plans for a multibillion-euro Amsterdam IPO as soon as the end of this year (FT)

SPAC

• Chinese P2P ride-hailing marketplace Wanshun Technology Industrial Group will merge with AlphaVest Acquisition Corp. in a $300M deal (GNW)

Debt

• Bank of America sold $5B of senior unsecured notes in a four part sale (BBG)

• Goldman Sachs raised $1.5B through a sale of $1.5B fixed-rate perpetual notes (BBG)

• Regional lender Huntington Bancshares raised $1.25B through a sale of senior, unsecured six-year fixed-to-floating rate notes (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Macquarie Asset Management provided a $700M equity injection to highly levered UK utility Southern Water, which had been seeking funding to reduce its gearing ratio and steady its balance sheet (BBG)

Fundraising

• Coca-Cola is partnering with Greycroft Partners to launch its Greycroft Coca‑Cola System Sustainability Fund, which has raised $138M to focus on reducing its carbon footprint (AX)

Crypto Corner

• FTX founder SBF was charged with using over $100M in stolen customer funds to make campaign donations ahead of the 2022 midterm elections (RT)

• SBF is heading to a Brooklyn jail notorious for its poor conditions (RT)

• Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network received court permission to seek creditor approval for its bankruptcy plan (RT)

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