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Good Morning,

UK CPI hit 11.1% in October, US homebuilder sentiment hit a decade low, US Q4 GDP estimates were revised upwards, Republicans secured control of the House, Softbank posted a $10B quarterly loss, Apple will launch an MLS season pass, South Korean apartment prices are crashing, and Thanksgiving meals will cost 20% more this year.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks fell on Wednesday as investors digested hotter-than-expected retail sales data and a slowdown in manufacturing output growth

• The 10-2 Treasury yield spread continued to fall deeper into negative territory

Earnings

• Target saw a 50% decline in profit as sales slowed heading into the holiday season, prompting a decline in Q4 forecast; their earnings contrasted rival Walmart's causing their stock to fall 13% (CNBC)

• Tencent revenue fell for a second straight quarter in Q3 amid China's bruising regulatory crackdown and slowing economic growth; their stock is nevertheless up ~28% since last week (FT)

• Nvidia beat Q3 revenue estimates on sustained demand in its data center business, while slightly missing on EPS and Q4 guidance expectation (CNBC)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Alibaba, Gap

  • Friday: JD.com

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• UK CPI rose by a higher-than-expected 11.1% in October (CNBC)

• US retail sales rose by a solid 1.3% in October (RT)

• US Q4 GDP estimates were revised upwards (RT)

• US manufacturing lost momentum in Q3 (RT)

• US import prices fell for fourth straight month in October (RT)

• US homebuilder sentiment dropped to a decade low (CNBC)

• Republicans win control of the House (WSJ)

• Russia's economy shrank 4% in Q3 (RT)

• US regulators gained 'good access' to audits of Chinese firms (RT)

• EU will propose a natural gas price cap (RT)

• Southeast Asian IPOs raised only $6.3B YTD, less than half of what they did in 2021 (CNBC)

• Softbank posted a $10B quarterly investment loss and wrote down their $100M FTX investment (FT)

• Dell reached a $1B settlement over disputed 2018 stock swap (RT)

• Apple will launch an ‘MLS Season Pass’ subscription in February (TC)

• Day One Ventures launched a 'Funded Not Fired' program to invest $100k into 20 new startups that each have at least one tech-laid off founder (​​CNBC)

• South Korean apartment prices fell at steepest pace in 19 years (RT)

• Thanksgiving meals will cost 20% more this year (AX)

• Lack of child care is keeping record number of parents out of work (AX)

• Airbnb single-room listings jumped 31% in Q3 amid cost-of-living crisis (RT)

• Harvard and Yale's law schools will withdraw from US News & World Report rankings (BG)

• Blackstone's Steve Schwarzman says he will not support Donald Trump's presidential bid (FT)

A Message From Plaid

What do Fintech customers want?

Find out in Plaid’s 3rd annual Fintech Report for risk teams - download full report

Through surveying over 2,000 fintech consumers across the US this is Plaid’s third annual deep-dive into the financial technology landscape specifically for risk teams.

The report breaks down exactly what customers want in their fintech experience and each user’s priorities to move across the digital finish line. Use the learnings to garner more customers and most importantly; make those customers happy.

But what makes it worth the download? Good question, here’s a few learnings on what the people are looking for when it comes to fintech products:

• Convenience - 73% say easy sign up impacts whether or not they will use the app

• Security - 80% of customers prefer apps that verify users/identities over those that don’t

• Trust - 83% of customers prefer direct control over where their data is shared (as opposed to giving that power to the company)

For anyone looking to improve onboarding and grow customer retention, this report is a must-read.

You can download it right here for free (but, as always, remember to say “Thank you, Plaid!”).

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Chinese conglomerate Tencent will return capital to shareholders through a dividend distribution of its $20.3B stake in food delivery firm Meitan (RT)

• Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis is considering options for its ophthalmology and respiratory unit, with the former potentially valued at ~$5B in a deal (BBG)

• A consortium led by Japan Industrial Partners that is seeking to buy industrial group Toshiba is in talks with ~20 co-investors to back its bid (BBG)

• EU antitrust regulators are opening an in-depth investigation into online travel agency Booking’s $1.7B bid for Sweden-based eTraveli (RT)

• Investment firm General Atlantic is exploring ways to boost its stake in, or buy the rest of, Norwegian education tech company Kahoot!, which has a current market value of ~$1.3B (BBG)

• Lions Gate Entertainment expects to separate its movie studio and Starz network by September (BBG)

• Berkshire Hathaway agreed to buy a stake in NY-based investment bank Jefferies while trimming its stake in financial stocks including US Bancorp and BNY Mellon (BBG)

• Cinven, CVC, and CD&R are among potential suitors for a package of chemical firm Sika’s admixture assets, after antitrust regulators frowned upon strategic buyers (BBG)

VC

• Matter Labs, the company behind Ethereum scaling solution zkSync, raised a $200M Series C led by Blockchain Capital and Dragonfly (TC)

• Haystack Oncology, a company developing a circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) detection technology, raised a $56M Series A led by Catalio Capital Management (PRN)

• BetterVet, a mobile veterinary network, raised a $40M Series A led by Alta Partners and BetterVet’s CEO Bruce Herzfelder (PRN)

• Curevo Vaccine, a biotechnology company focused on developing infectious disease vaccines, raised a $26M Series A-1 led by Janus Henderson Investors, RA Capital Management, and more (BW)

• Online brokerage platform baraka raised a $20M Series A led by Valar Ventures (TC)

• ArmorCode, a startup helping AppSec teams scale, raised a $14M Series A led by Ballistic Ventures (PRN)

• BoostSecurity, an automation platform helping secure the software supply chain, raised a $12M seed round led by Sorenson Capital (PRN)

• Volumetric video editing and streaming startup Arcturus raised an $11M Series A led by Cloudtree Ventures (BW)

• Web productivity startup SigmaOS raised a $4M seed round led by LocalGlobe (TC)

• Career prep platform Fearless raised a $1M pre-seed round led by Focus Impact Partners founder WrayThorn (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• SpaxeX, Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company, is in talks about an offering of mostly secondary shares at an up to $150B valuation (RT)

• Electric aviation and regional air travel company Surf Air Mobility filed for a US direct listing after terminating its $1.42B SPAC merger (RT)

• Softbank will sell Indian fintech Paytm shares worth $200M via block deal (ET)

• Geothermal seawater spa Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s main tourist attraction, is planning an IPO in the country (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• FTX Digital Markets, FTX's Bahamas unit, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the US (AJZ)

• FTX's Digital Markets liquidators 'reject the validity' of said US bankruptcy proceedings (RT)

Fundraising

• Climate Adaptive Infrastructure, a climate-focused infrastructure investment firm, raised a $825M inaugural fund (BW)

• VSquared Ventures launched a new ~$170M fund to invest in early-stage deeptech startups (EUS)

• MassMutual Ventures launched a $100M fund aimed at early / growth stage climate tech startups (BW)

• UK-based Simplyhealth launched a $71.5M fund, Simplyhealth Ventures, to invest in UK-focused early-stage healthcare businesses (SC)

• Stockholm-based Behold Ventures raised a new $25.9M fund to invest in Nordic gaming startups (VB)

• Fiat Ventures raised a $25M inaugural fund aimed at early-stage financial services and fintech startups (TC)

• Atomico angel Stefano Bernardi raised ~$19M for new VC fund Unruly Capital to invest in climate and deeptech (SFT)

Crypto Corner

• FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried sought to raise $7B from investors including Sequoia, Apollo, TPG, Nomura and Saudi's PIF at time of collapse (RT)

• FTX and trading affiliate Alameda were nominally independent, but listed same assets on their books (RT)

• Binance CEO is seeing significant interest in crypto industry recovery fund (RT)

• US crypto investors sued FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and several celebrities including Tom Brady and Larry David alleging deceptive practices (RT)

• US House committee will hold a hearing on collapse of FTX (RT)

• Crypto lender Genesis Global suspended loan redemptions citing FTX failure (RT)

• Gemini delays withdrawals on lending program after its parter, Genesis Global, announced it will pause withdrawals on its borrowing platform amid a liquidity crunch (BBG)

Exec's Picks

• The GB Packers (4-6) will welcome the TEN Titans (6-3) to town for a primetime matchup tonight. They’ve won nine straight primetime games at Lambeau Field and are currently trading at $62.50 to win the game according to Sporttrade, America’s only regulated sports trading exchange. This means the Packers have a 62.5% chance to win. But if you think they don’t have what it takes to win #10 in a row, you can buy the Titans (currently trading at $38.50) and sell out whenever you want. Because on Sporttrade, you can day trade sports like you do stocks. Download anywhere on iOS today. Trade in NJ.

• Vox's Kelsey Piper wrote a wild story, with DMs included, about Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX's collapse. Click here to check it out.

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 aim to curate jobs across IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We'll sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

If you're a company looking to hire candidates and want to list a job opening on our board and feature on Exec Sum, click the button below:

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