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Good Morning,

Russia is absolutely dominating our "Headline Roundup" section this week.

Snowflake's stock price melted after their earnings report, Credit Suisse is trying to hide its prior loans to Russian oligarchs backed by yachts / private jets, oil blew past $110 per barrel, Jeep is building electric SUVs, Abramovich is selling his Chelsea stake and donating the proceeds to war victims, US bans Russian planes from US airspace, Ukraine is accepting Dogecoin donations, and Amazon is closing its retail stores. 

We're expecting bonus numbers from Guggenheim and Deutsche Bank in the coming weeks and will recirculate our comp survey once we get some data points. 

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• Stocks rebounded yesterday despite a continued surge in oil prices and escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine, with all three major US averages closing in the green and effectively reversing Tuesday’s losses

• MSCI and FTSE Russell are cutting Russian equities from their widely-tracked indexes, isolating the stocks from a large segment of the investment-fund industry. Effective, March 9 and March 7, respectively

• China's "reopening stocks" (primarily consumer and retail sectors) rallied after a report said that Beijing was weighing an exit from its strict Covid-Zero policy

• In his semiannual monetary policy update, J Pow announced that rate hikes are likely to begin this month and the Fed would make progress on, but not finalize, a plan to reduce its balance sheet

• The ADP private payrolls report came in better-than-expected, adding 475K jobs (vs. 400K expected)

Earnings

• Snowflake fell 29% in AH after reporting slowing growth despite better-than-expected revenue numbers (CNBC)

• Dollar Tree shares slid ~4% after posting a wide miss on sales and earnings, while the FDA recently discovered that the discount retailer has a rat problem (MW)

• What we’re watching today: Best Buy, Kroger, Costco, Gap, Smith & Wesson

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Oil tops $110 as IEA release fails to quell rising supply fears (BBG)

• Credit Suisse caught trying to shred evidence of loans to Russian oligarchs backed by superyachts and private jets (Fortune)

• US lawmakers dress in Ukraine flag colors at Biden’s State of the Union speech (BBG)

• Honda suspends motorcycle, vehicle sales to Russia (BBG)

• Authentic Brands eyes push into clothing, NFTs to boost Reebok (BBG)

• Jeep plans line of fully electric SUVs (WSJ)

• UAE cancels visa-free regime for Ukrainians just days into Russian invasion (CNBC)

• Russia’s wealthy elite speak out against Putin’s invasion (CNBC)

• Nomura creates new group to bolster ESG, infrastructure efforts (BBG)

• Abramovich says he will sell Chelsea soccer club amid Ukraine war and donate all net proceeds to foundation that will “benefit all victims of war in Ukraine” (CNBC)

• US bans Russian aircraft from American airspace (CNBC)

• White House unveils new Covid roadmap in sign of plunging risk (BBG)

• Morgan Stanley raises $2B for latest PE fund (BBG)

• Russia demands UK sell stake in satellite startup OneWeb (BBG)

• Powell plans to seek quarter-percentage point rate increase (WSJ)

• Amazon is shutting 68 retail stores, ending Amazon Books, 4-star and Pop Up shops (CNBC)

• Everton suspend sponsorship deals with three Russian companies after invasion of Ukraine (CNBC)

• Russia bans payments to foreigners holding rouble bonds, shares (RT)

• Peloton ex-CEO sells $50M of stock (BBG)

A Message From Masterworks

2022 has been rough for investors. I’ve lost some $$$. You probably have too. After all, every major index is down.

Here’s a quick recap of their performance since January:

• Dow Jones: -8.99%

• S&P 500: -10%

• Nasdaq: -13.53%

Market chaos does keep the adrenaline rushing. And it makes for some fantastic memes. But I’m not trying to lose more if the dip keeps dipping. That’s why I’m diversifying my portfolio like there’s no tomorrow.

So what am I diversifying in specifically? More stable alternative assets like Blue-chip art. In fact, I believe blue-chip art is a key part of a diversified portfolio (so does Citi btw). 

Here are 3 reasons why:

• Low Correlation: art has a low correlation to equities on average according to Citi

• Inflation Hedge: real assets like art maintain value well when inflation is high

• Solid Appreciation: Contemporary art appreciated 13.6% annualized (1995-2021) 

And with 2022 getting more chaotic by the day, I’m investing in more art with Masterworks ASAP. For those who live under NFT rocks, Masterworks is the app turning multimillion-dollar paintings into investible securitized products.

And I’m not even the biggest A-lister on the platform. Jason Calacanis, Meb Faber and Packy McCormick all use Masterworks. Clearly, great minds think alike. 

Want to join us and 350,000 art bulls? Then don't wait. You can use this Exec Sum link to skip the waitlist*

See important Reg A Disclosures

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Apollo is in preliminary talks with sports betting companies including PointsBet about merging their assets with Yahoo Sports (CNBC)

• Data cloud company Snowflake agreed to acquire Streamlit, a framework built to simplify and accelerate the creation of data applications, for $800M (TC)

• PE firm Silver Lake made a $400M strategic investment into Zuora, a cloud-based subscription management platform provider, to accelerate growth (BW)

• Netflix offered to buy Finnish mobile games company Next Games for $72M (RT)

• Canada’s WestJet airlines is nearing a deal to acquire low-cost rival Sunwing Airlines (BBG)

• Activist investor Elliott Management submitted a bid to acquire defense electronics manufacturer Mercury Systems (BBG)

• Epic Games agreed to buy online music store Bandcamp (BBG)

• Groupe Bruxelles Lambert is considering a bid to take diaper maker Ontex Group private (BBG)

VC

• Sports merchandise company Fanatics raised $1.5B at a $27B valuation in a round including Fidelity, BlackRock and MSD Partners (BBG)

• LatAm logistics startup 99minutos raised an $82M Series C led by OAK HC/FT (PRN)

• Sanctuary Cognitive Systems, a company focused on creating human-like intelligence for general purpose robots, raised a $58.5M Series A led by Bell, Evok Innovations, Export Development Canada, and more (PRN)

• FreeWill, a social good enterprise concerned with philanthropy and estate planning, raised a $30M Series B led by Bain Capital Double Impact (PRN)

• Aether, a startup creating diamonds from atmospheric carbon, raised an $18M Series A led by Helena (PRN)

• Fieldguide, an automation and collaboration platform for audit and advisory firms, raised a $17M Series A at a $100M valuation led by 8VC (PRN)

• Green hydrogen production startup H2U raised an $11M Series A led by Jericho Energy Ventures, Freeflow Ventures, VoLo Earth Ventures, and Hess Corporation (PRN)

• SaaS design system platform Knapsack raised a $5.5M round led by Gradient Ventures (PRN)

• InspectHOA, a startup focused on the homeowners associations component of real estate transactions, raised a $3.1M seed round led by SVQUAD (PRN)

• CryptoLeague, a Miami-based web3 tech company, raised a $2.2M pre-seed round led by Gaingels, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Magic Fund, and more (PRN)

• The Host Company, a digital marketplace for short term rentals, raised a $1.85M seed round led by HearstLab (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Singapore’s GLP has filed for a US IPO of its investment business, seeking to raise ~$2B (BBG)

SPAC

• Smart car technology company Ecarx is considering going public via SPAC in a potential ~$4B deal (BBG)

Debt

• Carlyle Group’s global credit unit is leading a private debt package for Italian football club Atalanta B.C. (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• Basketball’s Metta World Peace drops Solana NFT sneaker collection with Blanksoles (DC)

• Schwab files with SEC to create 'Crypto Economy ETF' (TBC)

• Ukraine now accepts Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies for donations as funding rises to $35M (CNBC)

• Ukraine says ‘airdrop confirmed’ after receiving $33M in crypto donations (CD)

• SEC scrutinizes NFT market over illegal crypto token offerings (BBG)

• ETH donations to Ukraine's government spike after it announces an 'airdrop' to donors (TBC) - see chart below for reference

Exec's Picks

• Mike Solana, VP of Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, wrote about how nuclear weapons, modern technology, and world governments all raise the stakes in the Russia-Ukraine conflict here.

• Lex Fridman recently interviewed Mark Zuckerberg. The duo discussed censorship, freedom, mental health, Social Dilemma, the Instagram whistleblower, and more. Check out their interview here.

• Some of y'all were asking where to buy the #REF! hat featured on Litquidity's IG story. You can cop the cap here. Or..... y'all can refer 40 people to newsletter and get it for free*

* We're monitoring for fake emails so those of y'all trying to game the system aren't getting away that easy!

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 20+ 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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