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Good Morning,

Citi and BofA cut hundreds of jobs yesterday, shipping traffic has hit a multi-year low, global carbon emissions hit a record high in 2022, and a Fed speech was cut short after someone hijacked the room and started blasting porn.

If you're looking for a great book about investing written by a legendary financier, check out David Rubenstein's latest book: How To Invest.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks reversed losses to end higher yesterday as investors digested strong economic data and signals of a 'slow and steady' rate hike approach from the Fed 

  • Futures markets are pricing in a 20% chance of a 50 bps rate hike this month and a 5.5-5.75% target Fed funds rate

• Investors are expecting ECB's key interest rate to peak at 4.1% at year-end

• Dollar index rose 0.6%, while the euro fell 0.7%

• Pakistani rupee hit a record low as IMF talks drag

Earnings

• TD Bank Group beat Q1 profit estimates as robust growth in retail banking offset weakness in wealth management and insurance; they also raised bad loan provisions (RT)

• Costco beat Q2 EPS estimates but missed on revenue on cooling demand for big-ticket discretionary items as consumers look to save money (BRN)

• Best Buy beat Q4 EPS and revenue estimates on lower-than-expected decline in demand for consumer electronics; they expect further FY sales declines with most of the heat to be felt in Q1 (CNBC)

• Dell beat Q1 EPS and revenue estimates on strong growth in corporate infrastructure demand that offset ongoing weakness in their PC business, while giving a cautious FY outlook (IBD)

• Broadcom beat Q1 EPS and revenue estimates on continued strength in infrastructure demand across all its end markets, while forecasting a better-than-expected Q2 on the recent AI boost (MW)

• Nordstrom beat Q4 EPS estimates and met on revenue despite struggling with slower sales and more markdowns; they forecast declining FY sales on lower consumer spending and inflation-driven cost pressures (CNBC)

• Victoria's Secret beat Q4 EPS estimates and matched revenue despite a consumer spending slowdown and warned of a challenging environment for the 'foreseeable future' (MW)

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Eurozone inflation eased slightly to 8.5% in February (CNBC)

• US Q4 labor cost inflation was revised significantly higher to 3.2% (RT)

• Q4 retail earnings reveal a sharp consumer spending pullback (WSJ)

• US 30-year mortgage rates jumped back over 7% (CNBC)

• Bank profits fell 6% in 2022 (WSJ)

• Japanese investors turned net sellers of foreign bonds last week for first time since January (RT)

• China's manufacturing is accelerating sharply (AX)

• Global carbon emissions hit a record high last year (BBG)

• Shipping traffic plummeted to its lowest level in years (WSJ)

• Credit Suisse is offering higher deposit rates in Asia to woo wealthy clients (RT)

• Fidelity stopped marking down its Twitter shares (AX)

• JPMorgan Asset Management wiped Adani stocks from its ESG funds (BBG)

• ESPN wants to be the hub of all live sports streaming (CNBC)

• TD Bank will pay $1.2B to settle litigation alleging involvement in Allen Stafford's Ponzi scheme (RT)

• Fed speech scrapped after participant shows porn in zoom room (BBG)

• Citigroup cut hundreds of jobs across IB, mortgage and other units (BBG)

• General Electric plans to hire over 1.7k employees in US this year (RT)

• Zoom abruptly fired President Greg Tomb without cause (BBG)

• Starbucks violated labor law in thwarting union push (NYT)

• SpaceX and NASA launched a four-person crew to ISS (NASA)

A Message From Simon & Schuster

David M. Rubenstein, cofounder of The Carlyle Group, speaks with some of the most successful, forward-thinking investors across a range of finance disciplines.

Conversations with financiers such as Stan Druckenmiller, Larry Fink, Mike Novogratz, Seth Klarman, and many more reveal deep insights into the principles of investing, portfolio growth, decision making, and indispensable wisdom from the world’s leading investors.

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• PE firm Leonard Green & Partners is exploring a sale of packaging company Pro Mach in a potential $5B deal (RT)

• Barclays completed its $2.8B acquisition of mortgage-lender Kensington Mortgages from Blackstone and Sixth Street (BX)

• Mining and metals trading platform MineHub agreed to buy rival Waybridge for $2.5B (RT)

• US asset manager GQG Partners bought shares worth $1.87B in four Adani Group companies in the first major investment since Hindenburg's short-sell report (RT)

• Turkish carmaker Tofas Turk Otomobil Fabrikasi agreed to buy carmaker Stellantis’s local distribution business for $425M (BBG)

• Digital publishing software company Chartbeat agreed to buy social video analytics company Tubular Labs and digital revenue management company Lineup Systems (AX)

• Hedge fund Third Point built a passive stake in chapmaker AMD (RT)

• US cybersecurity tools vendor OneSpan is exploring a sale after becoming the target of activist hedge funds such as Legion Partners Asset Management (RT)

VC

• Kindbody, a fertility clinic network and family-building benefits provider for employers, raised $100M in funding at a $1.8B valuation from Perceptive Advisors (PRN)

• Behavioral marketing platform Wunderkind raised a $76M Series C led by Neuberger Berman (TC)

• Contract lifecycle management startup SpotDraft raised a $26M Series A led by Premji Invest (TC)

• Attio, a startup building a next-gen CRM platform, raised a $23.5M Series A led by Redpoint Ventures (TC)

• TeraPore Technologies, a developer of advanced nanofiltration membranes for bioprocessing, raised $10M in financing led by Anzu Partners (BW)

• Customer video review tool Indent raised an $8.1M Series A led by SV Investment (TC)

• Henchman, a Belgian legal tech startup, raised a $7M Series A led by Adjacent VC and Acton Capital (PRN)

• Blockchain operational intelligence and risk management platform Metrika raised a $4M Series A extension led by M12 (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Global investment banks are pitching a large valuation range of $30-70B for chip designer Arm, as the company prepares for a highly-anticipated IPO this year (BBG)

• PE firm EQT is reviving plans to take skincare business Galderma public in an IPO that could raise up to $3.2B (BBG)

SPAC

• Body armor maker Point Blank Enterprises is in talks to merge with Schultze Special Purpose Acquisition Corp. II (BBG)

Debt

• Blackstone defaulted on a $562.5M bond backed by commercial real-estate owned by Finnish company Sponda Oy (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA filed for a second bankruptcy protection process (RT)

Fundraising

• A Carlyle deal to raise capital for its latest $22B buyout fund from existing investors fell short (FT)

• Kinship Ventures, a VC led by Gwyneth Paltrow, is raising $75M for its debut fund (AX)

Crypto Corner

• Crypto giants Coinbase and Galaxy Digital dropped Silvergate Capital as their banking partner amid concerns of its ability to stay in business (RT)

• Three US Senators demanded information from Binance and Binance.US over their compliance and finances (CNBC)

• Voyager bankruptcy judge is ‘absolutely shocked’ by SEC's objection to Binance.US's deal (CD)

• UK banks HSBC and Nationwide ramped up crypto limits for retail clients (BBG)

• FTX has a 'massive shortfall’ in assets, according to bankruptcy lawyers (CD)

Exec's Picks

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• Packy McCormick wrote a good piece on progress and why we should take "the weird things" more seriously.

• In case you missed it, Litquidity published a refreshed Wall Street sell-side compensation report yesterday with a ton of great info. Check it out here.

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