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Tech IPO volume is down 90%+ vs. 2021, UK PM Liz Truss defended UK tax cuts, Germany inflation hit a 70-year high, NY state is banning sale of gas cars by 2035, SoftBank and Meta are cutting staff, and stocks got thoroughly clapped yesterday.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• The S&P 500 dropped to a new 2022 low yesterday as stocks resumed their sell-off amid fears a recession won’t stop the Fed from raising interest rates

  • The Dow and Nasdaq also fell 1.5% and 2.84%, respectively

• The jobless claims report came in stronger-than-expected, but it wasn’t enough to help broad market sentiment as investors are still concerned that raising rates could hurt the labor market

• The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down 1.8%, with auto stocks dropping 5%

• Sterling posted sharp gains with the USD down against most currencies as investors took comfort in the BoE's ~$72B bond intervention

Earnings

• Bed Bath & Beyond reported a 28% drop in Q2 sales and wider-than-projected loss; they reiterated their full-year outlook expecting their turnaround plan to drive H2 improvement (CNBC)

• Micron Technology topped Q4 profit expectations but missed on revenue and Q1 guidance; the company is taking 'decisive steps' to reduce its supply growth (INV)

• Nike beat Q1 revenue estimates and met EPS expectations as supply chain issues and inventories weighed on earnings; their stock fell ~11% immediately AH (CNBC)

• CarMax widely missed Q2 expectations on nearly every metric, with earnings down 54% YoY amid soaring vehicle inflation; their stock fell nearly 25% (YH)

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US weekly jobless claims hit a five-month low, down by 16k to 193k (RT)

• US GDP growth was revised up to 5.9% in 2021, with GDP and GDI gap also narrowing sharply during this time (RT)

• UK PM Liz Truss defended UK tax cuts despite market turmoil (CNBC)

• ECB is eyeing another jumbo rate hike to fight inflation even as debtors suffer (RT)

• Tech IPO market is facing its worst year since 2008, with volumes down 90.4% YTD compared with last year (RT)

• Meta to cut headcount for first time, slash budgets across teams (BBG)

• SoftBank sheds 30% of Vision Fund staff as it seeks to cut costs (FT)

• US Senate approved a government funding extension to avert shutdown (CNBC)

• US and South Korea are working to ‘rectify the problems’ on EV subsidies (CNBC)

• China's central bank told state-owned banks to stock up for yuan intervention (RT)

• Germany inflation hit a 70-year high of 10.9% in September, up from 8.8% in August (RT)

• Germany agreed to a $194B package to shield against surging energy prices (RT)

• UK housing market may face perfect storm as mortgage rates rise and home prices drop (RT)

• NY state to ban sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035 (WSJ)

• Amazon raised hourly pay for warehouse and transportation workers to $19/hour (RT)

• Google will shut down its Stadia cloud gaming service (TI)

• McDonald’s is releasing a new Happy Meals for adults (CNBC)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Brookfield Renewable Corp. agreed to buy two clean power companies, Scout Clean Energy and Standard Solar, for $1B and $540M, respectively (RT)

• MBK Partners is considering joining a consortium led by Japan Investment Corp. seeking to buy Japanese conglomerate Toshiba (BBG)

• Music label Concord Music Group purchased a bundle of music rights from Phil Collins and other Genesis bandmates in a $300M+ deal (CNBC)

• Canadian energy infrastructure firm Enbridge agreed to buy US-based renewable energy developer Tri Global Energy for $270M (RT)

• Brand Velocity Partners, the investment firm that now features former New York Giants QB Eli Manning as a partner, agreed to buy a majority stake in youth league apparel company Score Sports (BBG)

VC

• Online travel startup Traveloka secured $300M in financing from investors including BlackRock (BBG)

• RoboSense, a Chinese developer of sensor technology used in self-driving cars, is raising ~$150M in new funding to bankroll its production expansion (BBG)

• Zero Motorcycles, an electric motorbike startup, raised a $107M round led by Polaris, Exor, Hero MotoCorp, and more (BW)

• Moxion, a startup developing batteries to replace diesel generators, raised a $100M Series B led by Tamarack Global (TC)

• Business planning platform Pigment raised a $65M Series B+ led by IVP and Meritech Capital (TC)

• Workstream, a mobile-first hiring and onboarding platform for the deskless workforce, raised a $60M Series B extension round led by GGV Capital (BW)

• Software supply chain security startup Ox Security raised a $34M seed round led by Evolution Equity Partners, Rain Capital, Team 8, and M12 (TC)

• Airplane, a startup aiming to make it easier for companies to build internal dev tools, raised a $32M Series B led by Benchmark (TC)

• PATH, a sustainable bottled water brand, raised a $30M Series A led by Altos Ventures (PRN)

• E-commerce aggregator Una Brands raised a $30M Series B led by White Star Capital and Alpha JWC Ventures (TC)

• Delphinus Medical Technologies, a startup helping detect breast cancer with ultrasound, raised a $30M Series D led by Arboretum Ventures, Beringea, North Coast Technology Investors, and more (BW)

• Noodle.ai, a startup creating a supply chain system-intelligence platform, raised a $25M Series C from ServiceNow and Honeywell Ventures (PRN)

• Fintech SaaS provider Toqio raised a $19.6M Series A led by AlbionVC (TC)

• Doccla, a startup producing remote patient monitoring platforms for hospitals, raised a ~$17M Series A led by General Catalyst (TC)

• Lunio, a startup fighting ad fraud with algorithms, raised a $15M Series A led by Smedvig Capital (TC)

• Detectify, a security platform empolying ethical hackers, raised $10M in follow-on funding led by Insight Partners (TC)

• Arcade, a startup aiming to make it easier to build demos with their Chrome extension, raised a $7.5M seed round in two tranches: a $2.5M tranche led by Upfront Ventures and a $5M tranche led by Foundation Ventures (TC)

• Latin American NFT marketplace Minteo raised a $4.3M seed round from Fabric Ventures, Dune Ventures, CMT Digital, Impatient VC, SIG, and more (TC)

• Studio, a private group camcorder app, raised a $3.3M seed round led by GV’s M.G. Siegler (TC)

• Ripe, a Stockholm-based product-led B2B company, raised a $2M pre-seed round led by Earlybird Venture Capital and Alliance Venture (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Porsche shares ended flat in their Frankfurt IPO in one of Europe's biggest ever listings (WSJ)

• UK oil and gas producer Ithaca Energy is preparing for a London IPO later this year that could raise ~$1B (BBG)

Fundraising

• Fort Point Capital, a Boston based PE firm focused on lower middle market companies with a service oriented growth-focused approach, closed a $340M Fund III (PRN)

• Hustle Fund, an early-stage VC firm, closed a $46M Fund III for seed investments (TC)

Crypto Corner

• BlackRock plans another crypto ETF after a weak debut of its first one (BBG)

• Google has set sights on becoming the backbone of web3 (DC)

• Meta introduced NFT crossposting and sharing on Instagram (CT)

• NFT trading volume plunged 98% from January despite rise in adoption (CT)

• Bitcoin climate impact is greater than gold mining: study (GU)

Exec's Picks

• One of baseball’s all-time greatest players’ rookie cards: the ‘54 Topps #128 Hank Aaron Graded PSA NM-MT+ 8.5 is coming to Rally for initial offering. Reserve limited shares of an asset that’s in the top 0.7% of the graded population. 1 of the 8 available in existence for this example.

• The New York Times dropped an in-depth piece on McKinsey's work with tobacco companies and Juul yesterday. Check it out here.

• Robert Peston wrote an interesting thread on Twitter about why the Bank of England bought billions in government bonds this week. Read it here.

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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