Not The Year of The Tiger

Gas prices have fallen for seven straight weeks, tech stocks led a green day in the market, millions of Americans quit their jobs in June, Airbus scrapped a deal with Qatar Airlines, the SEC is probing Robinhood, CVS is eyeing the primary care business, Phil Mickelson and friends are suing the PGA, and Tiger Global is down horrendous YTD across all of its funds.

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Good Morning,

Gas prices have fallen for seven straight weeks, tech stocks led a green day in the market, millions of Americans quit their jobs in June, Airbus scrapped a deal with Qatar Airlines, the SEC is probing Robinhood, CVS is eyeing the primary care business, Phil Mickelson and friends are suing the PGA, and Tiger Global is down horrendous YTD across all of its funds.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 8/3/2022 market close.

If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

  • Stocks rose for the first time in August on the heels of some better than expected earnings reports and positive economic data

    • Tech stocks led Wednesday’s gains while the energy sector of the S&P 500 fell 3%

    • The US services sector continued to expand in July, according to a report from the Institute for Supply Management

    • Oil fell to its lowest level since before Russia invaded Ukraine in late February

Earnings

  • Under Armour met expectations for earnings and revenue but cut profit forecasts for the fiscal year 2023 as more promotions on athletic apparel ate into margins; its stock rose 1.5% on the day (CNBC)

  • Moderna surged up 16% after it announced a $3B share buyback plan and beat Wall Street’s expectation on earnings and revenue by a wide margin (WSJ)

  • CVS Health lifted its earnings outlook for the year after it beat expectations for both profit and earnings during Q2 and reported an increase of same-store sales by 8% YoY; its stock rose 6.3% (CNBC)

  • Robinhood rose 11.7% a day after dismissing 23% of its staff and posting its sixth straight quarterly loss (YHOO)

  • What we're watching this week:

    • Today: Alibaba, AMC Entertainment, Kellogg’s, Paramount, WWE

    • Friday: DraftKings, Cinemark

  • Full calendar here 

Headline Roundup

  • OPEC+ agreed to a small increase in oil production after global political pressure, but the move is expected to have a minimal impact on prices (RT)

  • US gas prices have fallen for seven straight weeks and are approaching a national average of $4 per gallon (WSJ)

  • Senator Kyrsten Sinema seeks to keep carried interest intact, curb corporate tax in the economic package Dems are trying to pass (BBG)

  • Tiger Global blames inflation after 50% drop in flagship hedge fund (FT)

  • US power producers are consuming near-record volumes of gas (RT)

  • 4.2M Americans quit work in June despite recession fears (CNBC)

  • Florida outpaced New York 2x in new business openings in 2021 (NYP)

  • Walmart began laying off corporate employees a week after slashing forecasts (CNBC)

  • Ford reported a 36.6% YoY increase in auto sales in July (CNBC)

  • Occidental Petroleum will accelerate debt payments and distribute cash to shareholders but will not raise oil production (RT)

  • Airbus scrapped a multi-billion dollar deal to supply Qatar Airways with 19 A350s (WSJ)

  • The SEC has been probing Robinhood's compliance with short selling rules (RT)

  • AMTD Digital, Reddit's latest meme stock, surpassed a $400B market cap after IPOing at ~$1B in July (FR)

  • Phil Mickelson and 10 others on the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour sued the PGA over their suspensions, citing antitrust violations (WSJ)

A Message From Eight Ball

A Macro Newsletter with Skin in the Game

In Skin in the Game, Nassim Taleb said, "Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio."

Every day, economists and talking heads give their predictions about the economy, interest rates, and the stock market. "We are going into a recession!" "Oil is going to $150 per barrel!" And every day, most of these predictions are wrong. The problem is that none of these economists put their money where their mouth is, so their accuracy doesn't matter.

We launched Eight Ball to solve this problem. With our new newsletter, Eight Ball, we use data provided by real-time prediction markets to see where investors are forecasting interest rates, oil prices, GDP growth, and more.

Our forecasts are determined by investors who put their real money on the line, not media personalities looking for air time.

If you want economic forecasts that have "skin in the game," subscribe to Eight Ball here!

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • An investor group led by Apollo Global Management will acquire airfreight company Atlas Air Worldwide in a $3.2B deal (BBG)

  • PE firm Thoma Bravo will acquire intelligence solutions company Ping Identity in a $2.8B all-cash deal (BBG)

  • US oil producer APA Corp acquired West Texas properties from oil company Titus Oil & Gas for $505M in Q2 (RT)

  • Auto-parts maker BorgWarner will buy EV charging provider Rhombus Energy Solutions in a ~$185M deal (RT)

  • Bio-Rad, a developer and manufacturer of specialized tech products for the life science market, agreed to acquire Curiosity Diagnostics in a $100M deal at closing, with an additional earn-out of up to $70M (BW)

  • Swiss engineering firm ABB is kicking off another attempt to sell its power-conversion unit, as the CEO continues to offload non-core businesses (BBG)

  • UK regulators ordered Canadian software firm Dye & Durham to sell British software firm TM Group on antitrust concerns (RT)

  • Business payments company FLEETCOR acquired accounts payable automation software company Accrualify (PYMNTS)

  • South Africa’s TymeBank plans to acquire local lender Retail Capital (BBG)

  • Indian e-commerce logistics company Ecom Express is considering a merger with another peer company (BBG)

  • Pittsburgh-based biogas firm Montauk Renewables is exploring a potential sale of the company (BBG)

VC

  • Ecom Express, an Indian e-commerce logistics company backed by Warburg Pincus, is looking to raise ~$100M at a $1B valuation (BBG)

  • Aisera, an AI-based platform for automated employee and customer experiences, raised a $90M Series D led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Thoma Bravo (PRN)

  • Homeward, a company focused on improving healthcare access in rural communities, raised a $50M Series B co-led by ARCH Venture Partners and Human Capital (BW)

  • Ben, an employee benefits platform, raised a $16M Series A led by Atomico (TC)

  • ZayZoon, an early wage access platform, raised a $12.5M funding round co-led by Carpe Diem Investments and Alpenglow Capital (TC)

  • Flow Security, a data security platform, raised a $10M seed round led by Amiti (GD)

  • Credit Fair, an embedded credit finance startup, raised $10M in a mix of debt and equity funding led by LC Nueva Alternative Investment Fund (ET)

  • Visiox Pharma, a biotech ophthalmic drug developer, raised a $7M seed round led by the Founding Partners (PRN)

  • Footprint, a data privacy platform, raised a $6M seed round led by Index Ventures (TC)

  • Spec, a no-code platform to help enterprises fight fraud, raised a $4.5M seed round led by Rally Ventures (PRW)

  • MUSO, a London-based data company that provides audience data on global piracy and unlicensed media consumption, received a ~$3.88M investment from Puma Private Equity (PRN)

  • Stackwell, a digital investment platform seeking to narrow the racial wealth gap, raised a $3.5M seed round led by Michael Gordon, the president of Fenway Sports Group, and Jeremy Sclar, CEO and Chairman of The Kraft Group (PRN)

  • Glambook, a marketplace for beauty professionals, secured a $2.5M investment from a group of angel investors (TC)

  • Bluecopa, a finance operations automation platform, raised a $2.3M seed round led by Blume Ventures (ET)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Chinese chipmaker Hygon Information Technology is looking to raise ~$1.6B at a ~$12.4B valuation in a Shanghai IPO (RT)

  • Uber sold its 7.8% stake in Indian food-delivery company Zomato for ~$390M in a block trade (BBG)

  • E-learning platform One on One Educational Services plans to raise over $358M in a Jamaica IPO (LN)

  • UAE money exchange firm Al Ansari is considering a 2023 Dubai IPO (BBG)

  • Indian e-commerce logistics company Ecom Express is weighing an IPO (BBG)

Fundraising

  • VC firm L’Attitude Ventures closed its first institutional fund with over $100M to solely invest in Latinx-owned seed to Series A companies with 'high growth potential' (TC)

  • Beauty retail chain Ulta Beauty launched their VC arm Prisma Ventures to raise a $20M fund to back startups focused on improving shopping experiences (TC)

Crypto Corner

  • Texas bitcoin miner Riot Blockchain earned more money in power credits from shutting down its mining rigs last month than it did from selling bitcoin (BBG)

  • MicroStrategy shares surge 12%+ after CEO Michael Saylor steps down to "focus on bitcoin fulltime" (CD)

  • Textbook publisher Pearson will sell its textbooks as NFTs (GU)

  • Ongoing Solana hacks have cost users over $6M so far (CNBC)

Exec's Picks

  • Are you a current or former investment banker / PE investor looking for a reliable financial data service that won't cost an arm and a leg like a Bloomberg Terminal, CapIQ, or FactSet? Koyfin is a platform I recently started using to perform fundamental analysis and track my personal portfolio. They've got several affordable plans for current and former professionals and a sleek, modern interface that's easy to navigate. Check them out here.

  • If you're into classic Wall Street vibes, check out this new IG account: @RetroWallStreet

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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