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Good Morning,

Mortgage rates hit a 20-year high, the stock market rally is creating retirement account millionaires, Japan insurers are turning their eyes to private credit, striking writers are taking an antitrust aim at Disney, Amazon, and Netflix, Tesla cut its prices in China, and Goldman is planning a hiring spree to fix lapses after Fed scrutiny.

Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks continued their fall as investors digested corporate earnings and higher bond yields

  • The Nasdaq led indices with a 1.2% decline

• The pan-European Stoxx 600 fell 0.9% over US Fed rate outlook worries and a slew of poor earnings

• Oil prices snapped their losing streak to resume their climb upwards

• Prices of various cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether, tumbled yesterday before making a partial recovery

Earnings

• Walmart beat Q2 adjusted earnings and revenue expectations and raised its FY guidance thanks to its low-price reputation drawing grocery customers (CNBC)

• Adyen shares dove ~36% after reporting worse-than-expected revenue and a profit drop in H1 due to a shift in North American customer behavior from growth to savings (CNBC)

• Applied Materials beat Q3 analyst revenue and earnings estimates thanks to company outperformance and strength in its ICAPS business (BRRN)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Deere & Company, Palo Alto Networks, Estée Lauder, XPeng

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Mortgage rates hit 7.09%, highest in over 20 years (WSJ)

• Stock market rally makes more 401(k) savers millionaires (WSJ)

• Private credit boom attracts Japan insurers with $2.6T (BBG)

• Striking writers take antitrust aim at Disney, Amazon, Netflix (RT)

• VC firms struggle to raise funds in China (TI)

• US SBA expands $5B program to attract more VC funds (AX)

• BofA’s warning of a ‘5% world’ sinks in with yields pushing higher (BBG)

• Tesla cuts prices in China as price-war truce fails (WSJ)

• A big health insurer is ripping up the playbook on drug pricing (WSJ)

• Rare look into the finances of Elon Musk’s secretive SpaceX (WSJ)

• Goldman plans hiring spree to fix lapses after increasing Fed scrutiny (BBG)

• China’s state banks seen selling dollars for yuan in London and New York hours (RT)

• Fed staff grow wary of asset-price risks following stock run-up (BBG)

• The EV startup worth more than GM had troubled US rollout (WSJ)

• US set to escalate claim Mexico corn policy violates trade deal (BBG)

• T. Rowe seeks shelter in shorts bonds to weather global debt turmoil (BBG)

• House Republicans subpoena Citibank over info shared with FBI after Jan. 6 (CNBC)

A Message From Litquidity & BOND

What’s up everyone! If anyone here is an accredited investor or qualified purchaser and has interest in seeing private opportunities in the Padel space, please fill out a brief investor survey so we can keep you in mind on upcoming deal flow.

Working on some exciting stuff in this space and would love to have the Litquidity / Exec Sum community participate in the upside of the fastest growing sport globally!

See below for a link to the form:

Additionally, if you guys didn’t see last week, I am now a founder of a Racquet & Wellness club called BOND. It would mean the world if y’all could head over to our @bondracquetwellness instagram account and shoot us a follow. Many thx!!!

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• India’s JSW Steel is looking to form a consortium to bid for a majority stake in Teck Resources’ steelmaking coal business, which commodities giant Glencore offered to buy for $8.2B (BBG)

• UK multinational defense contractor BAE Systems will buy beer can supplier Ball Corp.’s aerospace unit for $5.6B cash (BBG)

• Majority shareholder EQT will take SUSE private at an offer price that values the Frankfurt-listed software solutions provider at $3B (RT)

• Paramount Global cancelled plans to sell a majority stake in its BET Media Group after it concluded that a sale would not meaningfully deleverage its balance sheet; it received ~$2B-$3B offers from bidders including Shaquille O’Neal and Tyler Perry (WSJ)

• Vornado Realty Trust, an NYC office-focused REIT, is weighing a full or partial sale of its redeveloped Farley Building, which is leased to META and could sell for as much as $1.4B, to shore up liquidity (TV)

• Trucking firm Estes Express Lines will acquire bankrupt rival Yellow Corp’s terminals in a $1.3B deal, although the offer is subject to higher bids should any materialize (BBG)

• Tom Sullivan, the founder of LL Flooring, withdrew his proposal to buy the $130M market cap flooring retailer due to ‘LL’s deteriorating financial and operational performance and eroding value’ (BBG)

• American science instrument manufacturer Bruker Corp. will acquire functional cell biology company PhenomeX for ~$108M cash (BW)

• Troubled property developer Dalian Wanda Group is looking to sell its sports marketing unit Infront as financial pressures mount (RT)

• TPG Rise Climate, the climate investing strategy arm of PE firm TPG, agreed to buy a majority stake in British refrigerant gases firm A-Gas (RT)

VC

• Fintech startup Ramp is raising several hundred million at a 32% lower $5.5B valuation in a round led by Thrive Capital (TI)

• Biotech company Abcuro raised a $155M Series B co-led by Redmile Group and Bain Capital Life Sciences (BW)

• Pivotal Commware, a provider of 5G mmWave infrastructure products, raised a $102M Series D led by Gates Frontier and Tracker Capital (BW)

• Rondo Energy, a provider of zero-carbon industrial heat and power, raised $60M in funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, and more (FN)

• Helm.ai, a startup providing AI software for autonomous driving and robotics, raised a $55M Series C led by Freeman Group (FN)

• Smart home energy startup dcbel raised a $50M+ Series B led by Volvo Cars, Coatue, Kevin Mahaffey, Real Ventures, and more (FN)

• Aether, a nanoscale machinery company that can assemble new classes of molecules, raised a $49M Series A led by Jay Zaveri and Trevor Zimmerman of Unless (FN)

• ZetaChain, a developer of a public EVM-compatible L1 blockchain, raised a $27M round from Blockchain.com, Human Capital, Vy Capital, Sky9 Capital, and others (FN)

• Cloud-based threat-scanning platform ProjectDiscovery raised a $25M Series A led by CRV (TC)

• Mendaera, a healthcare robotics company, secured a $24M Series A led by Lux Capital (MHN)

• Beamer, a provider of no-code product engagement tools, raised a $20M round led by Camber Partners (FN)

• env0, a provider of infrastructure as code workflow automation and management software, raised an $18.1M Series A led by Venture Guides (FN)

• Dog food startup Jinx raised a $17.9M Series B led by The Merchant Club and Align Ventures (BW)

• Wonder Brands, an acquirer of e-commerce brands in Latin America, raised a $15.5M Series A led by Nazca and IDB Invest (TC)

• Caden, a data intelligence company, raised a $15M Series A led by Nava Ventures (FN)

• Soil carbon measurement startup Yard Stick raised a $10.6M Series A led by Toyota Ventures Climate Fund (FN)

• Visana Health, a virtual-first women’s health clinic, raised a $10.1M seed round led by Flare Capital Partners and Frist Cressey Ventures (FN)

• Micronotes, a big data and AI financial tech company, raised a $7.5M Series C led by BankTech Ventures (FN)

SPAC

• Ashington Innovation PLC will acquire biotech firm Cell Therapy through an all-stock $172M reverse takeover (MS)

Debt

• Broadcom will replace a $32B bridge loan with $28.4B in debt financing: two $10.7B loans and a $7B term loan, to fund its purchase of cloud computing company VMware (BBG)

• Apollo will lend over $4B in NAV loans to struggling PE firms (YF)

• Fortress Investment Group acquired an NYC-office loan portfolio from Capital One for ~$1B (YF)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• China Evergrande Group filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in New York to protect the company’s US assets while it works on restructuring overseas (BBG)

• Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, a major Chinese asset manager managing $137B in assets, announced that it must restructure its debt (RT)

Fundraising

• MetLife Investment Management, the institutional asset management business of life insurer MetLife, closed its MetLife Single Family Rental Fund with $390M in capital commitments (BW)

• Kraken Ventures plans to raise $100M for a second crypto ventures fund (CT)

• Tech entrepreneur Victoire Cogevina Reynal’s new company Mercury 13 is looking to raise $100M to buy controlling stakes in women’s football clubs (BBG)

• Assembly Ventures, a Detroit-based VC focused on mobility raised $76M for its inaugural fund (FN)

Crypto Corner

• FTX-affiliated crypto trading firm Alameda Research received a $175M unsecured claim to bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global Capital (RT)

• Dubai authorities fined the co-founders of failed crypto HF Three Arrows Capital over their latest new digital-asset exchange OPNX (BBG)

• A Coinbase-backed group of crypto investors and developers lost a lawsuit against the US that argued that the Treasury Department overstepped its authority in sanctioning anonymous crypto transaction platform Tornado Cash (CD)

• Musk’s SpaceX wrote down $373M of Bitcoin and may have sold all of its holdings (CT)

Exec’s Picks

• From comprehensive compliance policy templates to over 150 integrations with your core technology services, the Secureframe platform significantly increases the speed with which organizations can confidently begin a SOC 2 audit, without increasing overhead or slowing your team down. Schedule a personalized demo let us show you how.

• Tomorrow, Litquidity is hosting the inaugural Lit Cup at Bond East Hampton! Join us for a full day of tennis, padel, music, food, and drinks by clicking here.

• Yesterday’s Odd Lots podcast covered the possible broader economic impact of the newest wave of weight loss drugs.

Meme Cleanser

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