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Good Morning,

Stocks went green on Friday despite Russia's invasion, the Ruble is worth less than Robux, NY is ending school mask mandates, more countries are banning Russian flights, and Ukraine's government has raised more than $10M in crypto.

Another week ahead of watching a war play out in real time on Twitter, the internet is wild.

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

• After a roller coaster week surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, stocks climbed Friday to close green as investors continue to digest associated financial risks

  • Market sentiment was boosted Friday when the Kremlin reportedly said that Putin is ready to send a delegation to Belarus for negotiations with Ukraine

  • The Dow had its best day since November 2020, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also jumped

• The core personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed’s primary inflation gauge, came in slightly higher-than-expected rising 5.2% YoY (vs. 5.1% expected)

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week: 

  • Mon: Berkshire Hathaway, Lucid, Lordstown, Zoom

  • Tues: Target, SoFi, AMC, Salesforce, Nordstrom

  • Wed: Abercrombie & Fitch, Dollar Tree, Victoria’s Secret

  • Thurs: Best Buy, Kroger, Costco, Gap, Smith & Wesson

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Putin puts Russian nuclear forces on high alert as west steps up sanctions (FT)

• US and EU agree to cut Russian banks out of vital SWIFT financial system as part of latest sanctions (TIME)

• Russian planes face grounding risk as leasing firms mull default (BBG)

• Ukraine agrees to meet with Russia at Belarus border (ABC)

• US Capitol fencing is reinstalled ahead of trucker protests (BBG)

• Saudi Arabia announces discovery of five natural gas fields (BBG)

• Russians rush for dollars as sanctions threaten ruble collapse (Yahoo)

• Apple has a chance to launch an iPhone costing $199 (BBG)

• New York to end statewide school mask mandate on March 2 (RT)

• British Airways owner IAG weighs asset sales to raise cash (BBG)

• Ukrainian forces hold Kyiv as talks with Russia are planned (WSJ)

• Chris Licht to become new CNN president following Jeff Zucker ouster (CNBC)

• MLB owners could delay Opening Day if there’s no labor deal by Monday (CNBC)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• BP plans to sell its 20% stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft in a potential $25B charge off, joining the campaign to isolate Russia’s economy (BBG)

• Chevron is in advanced talks to buy Renewable Energy for ~$3B (BBG)

• Investment firm Monarch offered to buy real estate manager Paramount for $2.6B (BBG)

• RE Invest Belgium, a fund managed by Brookfield, offered to buy Belgian REIT Befimmo for ~$1.5B (BBG)

• Seplat Energy, Nigeria’s biggest independent oil company, agreed to buy some of Exxon’s assets in the country for $1.28B+ (BBG)

• Montefiore Investment is considering a sale of French fashion brand Isabel Marant that could fetch up to $1.1B (BBG)

• Buy now, pay later firm Zip to buy rival Sezzle for $352M (RT)

• China state-owned trust firms Everbright and Minmetals agreed to buy the stakes and “right to debt” in four developments from China Evergrande for $337.35M (RT)

• Zendesk is terminating its offer to buy SurveyMonkey parent company Momentive (BBG)

• Yomiuri Shimbun and five other newspaper companies agreed to buy a third of printing press maker Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho for $19M to help salvage the firm from a shareholder control battle (RT)

VC

• Gorillas Technologies, a grocery delivery startup, looks to raise $700M in new funding this year (BBG)

• Amazon’s India partner Samara Capital plans $500M fund (BBG)

• Hack VC closed a $200M fund aimed at early-stage crypto startups (TC)

• Singapore-based micromobility startup Beam raised a $93M Series B led by Affirma Capital (TC)

• Blockchain-based storage app ArDrive raises a $17.2M Series A led by Arweave Team, Blockchain Capital, and Sino Global Capital (Decrypt)

• Peruvian ride-hailing startup Leasy raised a $17M round led by Magma Partners (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Hong Kong-based insurance company FWD Group nears filing for $1B IPO (BBG)

SPAC

• Betsy Cohen SPAC FTAC Athene Acquisition Corp terminated its $1.75B merger with technology services firm Pico, citing a failure by them to deliver required financial information (RT)

• Foxo, whose AI and genetics technology is used to underwrite life insurance, agreed to merge with Delwinds Insurance Acquisition Corp in a $369M deal (BBG)

Debt

• Blackstone’s private credit arm led a $2.5B financing round to help Warburg Pincus fund its purchase of Informa’s Pharma Intelligence division (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• Ukrainian government raises more than $10M in crypto donations (TBC)

• New Yorkers are locked out of a crypto coin made just for them (BBG)

• Pixelmon founder calls artwork reveal ‘a horrible mistake’ (Decrypt)

• New DAO raises $3M in ETH for Ukrainian army (CD)

• BitConnect founder indicted for alleged $2.4B ponzi scheme (TBC)

Exec's Picks

• Alts - If you want to invest in alternative assets and don’t know where to look, try Alts. Alts is a newsletter that provides marketing-leading information on dozens of alternative investments, from islands, to domain names, to watches. Check it out.

• If y'all need a primer on what SWIFT is and why Russian banks are now excluded from it, check this article out.

• Asked my followers on twitter for best charities to support Ukraine, scroll through the comments on this post if you're looking for ways to donate.

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.

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