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News over the weekend: Paul Pelosi got a DUI, the EU is banning most Russian oil, US gas prices keep climbing, the WHO is worried about monkeypox, German inflation hit a record high, and Top Gun dominated the weekend box office.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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

Markets

• All three major averages closed last week in the green, with the S&P and Dow marking their best weekly gains since November 2020 and snapping eight week losing streaks

  • The Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq closed the week up 6.2%, 6.5%, and 6.8%, respectively

  • The majority of these gains came on Thursday and Friday, as stocks rallied behind strong retail earnings and a slowing inflation report

• The core personal consumption expenditures price index rose 4.9% in April (down from 5.2% the previous month)

• Oil prices hit two-month highs over the weekend, driven primarily by (1) EU leaders striking a deal to ban most Russian oil imports and (2) China easing covid lockdown restrictions

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week:

  • Tues: Salesforce

  • Weds: GameStop, Chewy

  • Thurs: Lululemon 

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• EU leaders back push to ban most Russian oil (BBG)

• German inflation hits fresh record, piling pressure on ECB (BBG)

• Biden to meet Powell to discuss economy as inflation bites (BBG)

• US gasoline surges to fresh record in another blow to drivers (BBG)

• Bank of Canada faces credibility test in political firestorm over inflation (BBG)

• Fed Governor Waller says he’s prepared to take rates past ‘neutral’ to fight inflation (CNBC)

• WHO can’t rule out monkeypox pandemic risk, says there’s a window of opportunity to stop outbreak (CNBC)

• Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul arrested for drunk driving (NYT)

• Top Gun: Maverick generated $156M in box office revenue this weekend (WSJ)

A Message From Masterworks

A Worthwhile Investment For Volatile Times According to Bloomberg 

Consistency in life and in investing is a critical element to building wealth. And yes, the markets have been consistent in 2022— consistently unreliable….

Tech giants have lost over $17B in Q1, stable coins aren’t stable, and fresh IPOs are MIA. So, where can you go for some sweet, sweet consistency? 

According to a Bloomberg economist, a sector is consistently thriving despite all odds, the art market. For 25 years, contemporary art prices appreciated by 14.1% annually on average. You can see that’s significantly higher than the S&P 500’s 9.9% annual return. And as of lately, the demand for art has skyrocketed. 

Here’s their thesis:

Wealthy investors have HUGE cash positions → they need somewhere to put them

Inflation is at 8.3% → demand for hedges like art soars

Demand goes up → prices of quality works also goes up 

In fact, I'm somewhat of an art investor myself.  And when it comes to art investing, I exclusively use Masterworks, the alternative investing platform. They’re transforming multimillion-dollar paintings into securities. And they even help find the best works for you depending on your investor profile. 

Thanks to them, investors with essentially no art knowledge have gotten 30%+ net annualized gains three times since 2019. It’s like you have a team of Warren Buffett's picking your stocks, except they're paintings. So what are you waiting for?

Enjoy exclusive access to this worthwhile investment with my unique link

See important Reg A disclaimer

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Telecom Italia is seeking a valuation of ~$21.5B for the landline network it plans to sell to a state lender and international funds (BBG)

• GIC and Greystar Real Estate Partners agreed to buy Student Roost, one of the UK’s largest student-accommodation businesses, in a ~$4.2B deal (BBG)

• UK fashion chain Ted Baker shares gained after a report that Authentic Brands is in talks about a potential $379M+ takeover bid (BBG)

• Czech banks PPF Group and Moneta Money Bank agreed to scrap their potential merger citing less favorable economic conditions (BBG)

VC

• Astro, an Indonesian 15-minute grocery delivery startup, raised a $60M Series B led by Accel, Citius, and Tiger Global (TC)

• B2B BNPL startup Mondu raised a $43M Series A led by Valar Ventures (TBC)

• Fintech infrastructure for web3 startup Merge raised a $9.5M round led by Octopus Ventures (TBC)

• NLP platform One AI raised an $8M seed round led by Tech Aviv, Ariel Maislos, Sentinel One CEO Tomer Wiengarten, and others (TC)

• Strong Compute, a startup helping speed up ML training pipelines, raised a $7.8M seed round led by Sequoia Capital India, Blackbird, Folklore, and others (TC)

• Parvis Invest, a Vancouver-based real estate investment platform, raised a $2.7M million seed round led by Gravitas Securities (PARVIS)

• Nigerian B2B retail marketplace Betastore raised a $2.5M pre-Series A round from 500 Global, VestedWorld, and Loyal VC (TC)

• NFT marketplace Ayoken raised a $1.4M pre-seed round from Founders Factory Africa, Crypto League, and more (TC)

Fundraising

• Blackstone targets $5B for Asia private credit business (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• A $90M DeFi exploit on Terra went unnoticed for seven months (TBC)

• Estonian crypto exchange WhiteBit buys Ukraine’s Eurovision trophy in auction for armed forces (TBC)

• India’s central bank plans ‘graded approach’ to digital currency (TBC)

• Tether has held some reserves at a bank in the Bahamas (FT)

Exec's Picks

• 🚨 GIVEAWAY: Parcl is hosting a $100,000 giveaway from May 23 to June 3 in partnership with the Suh Family Foundation. They are giving one individual $100,000 to go towards a downpayment on a house, plus a full year's worth of mortgage and tax payments. Click here to enter.

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've got 40+ jobs spanning IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

Meme Cleanser

Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast, presented by CoinFLEX.US, on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube 🤝