Quantitative Tightening

The Fed is finally shrinking its balance sheet, Musk cracks the Return-to-Office whip, Sheryl Sandberg stepped down as Meta's COO, an ex-OpenSea exec was arrested for NFT insider trading (lol), and Johnny Depp won his defamation suit.

Together with

Good Morning,

The Fed is finally shrinking its balance sheet, Musk cracks the Return-to-Office whip, Sheryl Sandberg stepped down as Meta's COO, an ex-OpenSea exec was arrested for NFT insider trading (lol), and Johnny Depp won his defamation suit.

ICYMI: Fire new episode of Big Swinging Decks just dropped. With intern szn kicking off, Lit and Mark share their experiences as interns on Wall Street and offer advice to all those beginning the annual boot camp. Subscribe to our YouTube to stay up to date with the latest episodes. As always, special thx to coinFLEX.US for making the BSD pod possible.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 6/1/2022 market close.

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

Markets

  • US stocks pulled back slightly yesterday with the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq closing down below 1% as we enter June

    • Names linked to the economic cycle were the biggest drivers for yesterday’s downturn, with financial stocks being the worst performing S&P 500 sector during the session

Earnings

  • GameStop reported a Q1 revenue increase YoY while losses more than doubled in that period, but strength in collectibles revenue has the company set to lean into NFTs in 2023 (CNBC)

  • Chewy shares jumped 25% AH yesterday, following a 5.3% decline in the regular session, after posting a surprise profit in Q1 despite inflationary pressures and supply-chain disruptions (MW)

  • What we’re watching today: Lululemon

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • Fed starts experiment of letting $8.9T portfolio shrink (BBG)

  • Elon Musk’s ultimatum to Tesla execs: return to office or get out (BBG)

  • Boris Johnson rules out quitting over partygate as fallout grows (BBG)

  • Ford CEO expects consolidation among automakers and suppliers as EV transition increases costs (CNBC)

  • Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Meta’s COO after 14 years (BBG)

  • Levi sees sales reaching $10B in new set of targets (BBG)

  • Documents reveal hundreds of Russian troops broke ranks over Ukraine orders (WSJ)

  • Jamie Dimon says US consumers still have six to nine months of spending power (WSJ)

  • GM slashes prices of Chevy Bolt EVs despite rising commodity costs (CNBC)

  • Johnny Depp wins defamation suit against Amber Heard (CNBC)

  • United Airlines plans $100M expansion of pilot training center during hiring spree (CNBC)

  • Sweeping water restrictions begin in Southern California as drought worsens (CNBC)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • A consortium led by KKR began soliciting investors to take over Australian hospital operator Ramsay Health’s $5.8B real estate portfolio (BBG)

  • Montreal-based engineering services firm WSP agreed to buy Scottish engineering group Wood’s built-environment consulting business for ~$1.9B (BBG)

  • Oil companies Tullow Oil and Capricorn Energy agreed to merge in a $1.9B deal (BBG)

  • Manufacturing company Saint-Gobain agreed to buy Canadian siding producer Kaycan for $928M (BBG)

  • Italian payments group Nexi agreed to buy the shop payments business of BPER Banca and Banco Di Sardegna in an up to $410M deal (RT)

  • Data center company Novva received a $355M growth equity investment from CIM Group (PRN)

  • British sportswear and fashion group Frasers agreed to buy online women’s fashion retailer Missguided out of administration for $25.2M (RT)

VC

  • Croatian electric car startup Rimac raised a $536M Series D at a $2.2B valuation led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Goldman Sachs (TC)

  • Coralogix, an in-stream observability platform, raised a $142M Series D led by Advent International and Brighton Park Capital (PRN)

  • Construction and subcontracting SaaS startup Constrafor raised $106.3M: $100M in credit led by CoVenture and $6.3M in equity led by FinTech Collective (TC)

  • Indian credit card startup Slice raised a $50M Series C at a ~$1.5-1.8B valuation led by Tiger Global and is looking to raise an additional $100M (TC)

  • WorkOS, a platform that lets developers add enterprise features to their apps, raised an $80M Series B led by Greenoaks (TC)

  • Blockchain infrastructure provider InfStones raised a $66M round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and GGV Capital (PRN)

  • White-label e-learning platform Odilo raised a $64M round led by Bregal Milestone (TC)

  • Cuemath, a one-on-one online math tutoring platform, raised a $57M round at a $407M valuation led by Alpha Wave (BW)

  • Farm automation startup Farmwise raised a $45M Series B led by Fall Line Capital and Middleland Capital (PRN)

  • Cybersecurity startup Ordr raised a $40M Series C led by Battery Ventures and Ten Eleven Ventures (TC)

  • Digital safety company Bark Technologies raised a $30M Series C led by Kayne Partners (PRN)

  • Healthcare interoperability startup Moxe Health raised a $30M Series B led by Piper and Vensana Capital (BW)

  • Hourly.io, a startup building an app that tracks working hours and generates payroll and workers’ comp insurance, raised a $27M seed round led by Glilot Capital Partners (TC)

  • Penny AI, a global leader in data-driven social commerce enablement, raised a $27M Series B led by PSG (BW)

  • Secondhand electric bike marketplace Upway raised a $25M Series A led by Exor Seeds and Sequoia (TC)

  • Anti-Instagram social app Poparazzi raised a $15M Series A led by Benchmark (TC)

  • Code Intelligence, an automated software testing platform, raised a $12M Series A led by Tola Capital (PRN)

  • Plastic upcycling startup Novoloop raised a $10M Series A extension led by Hanwha Solutions and Taizo Sons Mistletoe (TC)

  • CloseFactor, a startup building a platform that unites data insights and workflow platform to allow companies to better target accounts and customer personas, raised a $4.5M seed round led by Sequoia Capital (BW)

  • Financial planning and advice platform Lumiant raised a $3M round led by Savant Wealth Management (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Chinese EV maker WM Motor is considering raising ~$1B in a Hong Kong IPO (BBG)

  • China’s Wego Group has picked China Renaissance, Citigroup, and Huatai Securities to work on the Hong Kong IPO of its dialysis unit, Wego Blood Purification (BBG)

SPAC

  • Ticketing platform SeatGeek and RedBall Acquisition Corp. have dropped their $1.4B merger plans amid market volatility (BBG)

Fundraising

  • Binance Labs closed a $500M fund aimed at web3 and blockchain adoption (TC)

  • French early-stage VC firm Alven raised a $373M fund aimed at growth investments (TC)

Crypto Corner

  • US charges former head of product for OpenSea with NFT insider trading (CD)

  • Bitcoin mining revenues fell by 20%+ in May (TBC)

  • Rep. Cawthorn’s crypto wallet reveals undisclosed trades amid House ethics investigation (CD)

  • Bank of England to take over collapsed stablecoin cryptocurrencies (TG)

  • Solana blockchain suffers new network outage (TBC)

Exec's Picks

  • The last two years have shown that markets are anything but efficient, and Jack Raines recently published a "rebuttal" to The Efficient Market Hypothesis. Check out his Inefficient Market Hypothesis here.

  • 🚨 GIVEAWAY: Last call to enter into Parcl's $100,000 giveaway ending June 3. 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

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