Tough Month for Stocks

Markets closed red last Friday for another rough week, we have another big list of earnings slated, Pelosi flew to visit Zelensky in Kyiv, Saudi's economy is booming thanks to oil, and Qantas is reviving plans for the world's longest direct flights.

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Good Morning,

The countdown to Memorial Day Weekend officially starts now.

Markets closed red last Friday to end a rough week, we have another big list of earnings slated, Pelosi flew to visit Zelensky in Kyiv, Saudi's economy is booming thanks to oil, and Qantas is reviving plans for the world's longest direct flights.

Will the market rebound this week, or will stocks continue to drop further? Guess we'll see. 

Got some early-stage deals cooking in the pipeline. If any accredited investors and qualified purchasers want access to Litquidity's deal flow, fill out this brief survey.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 4/29/2022 market close.

If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

  • The major averages took a hit Friday to close out April on a poor note

    • The Dow had its fifth-straight negative week and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq registered their lowest closing levels of the year

    • Rising rates, inflation, and underwhelming earnings (particularly in big tech) are continuing to put pressure on the market

  • Looking ahead, this Wednesday we will receive a statement from the Federal Open Market Committee on monetary policy followed by a J Pow press conference

    • Another key economic indicator will be April’s jobs report Friday

  • Of the 275 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings, 80% have beaten earnings estimates with 73% topping revenue

Earnings

  • What we’re watching this week: 

    • Mon: BlackRock, Chegg

    • Tues: Pfizer, BP, Hilton, Airbnb, Starbucks, Lyft

    • Wed: Moderna, CVS, Marriott, Uber, Etsy

    • Thurs: Shopify, Lucid, Doordash

    • Fri: DraftKings, Under Armour, Cinemark 

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • Speaker Nancy Pelosi meets with Ukraine’s Zelensky in Kyiv (BBG)

  • Saudi economy grows at fastest pace in decade on oil boom (BBG)

  • PE firms eying Toshiba buyout face nuclear dilemma (BBG)

  • US consumers shrug off high inflation, lean on savings to boost spending (RT)

  • Russian central bank supports merger of sanctioned banks Otkritie and VTB (RT)

  • Netflix cancels Meghan Markle series ‘Pearl’ amid cutbacks (CNBC)

  • Moderna says its vaccine for ages under 6 will be ready for US review in June (CNBC)

  • Qantas revives plan for world's longest direct flights (BBG)

A Message From Shift4

Shift4 (NYSE: FOUR) is boldly redefining commerce by simplifying complex payments ecosystems across the world. As the leader in integrated payments and commerce technology, Shift4 powers billions of transactions annually for hundreds of thousands of businesses in virtually every industry – including hotels, restaurants, stadiums, casinos, retail, nonprofit, ecommerce and more.

The company recently expanded into the cryptocurrency space with the acquisition of The Giving Block, the leading crypto donation platform. To celebrate, Shift4 launched “Caring with Crypto” – a $20 million fundraising campaign for nonprofits on the platform, with Shift4’s CEO matching $10M in donations. You can visit thegivingblock.com/caringwithcrypto for more information about this initiative or to donate.

Learn more about Shift4 at shift4.com.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Jim Ratcliffe, the CEO of Ineos Group, made a $5.3B bid for football team Chelsea FC, which is reportedly lower than rival offers from three US-led consortiums (BBG)

  • LatAm lender Itau agreed to buy an 11.4% stake in Brazil brokerage XP for $1.6B (BBG)

  • Shell agreed to buy Indian renewable power supplier Spring Energy for $1.6B (BBG)

  • Asset management firm Bodhi Tree bought a $600M stake in Indian education brand Allen Career Institute, valuing it at over $1B (TC)

  • Colombian airline Avianca agreed to merge with Viva, another of the country’s most important commercial airlines (RT)

VC

  • Anthropic, a startup looking to make AI better and more explainable, raised a $580M round led by Sam Bankman-Fried (TC)

  • Chinese logistics robot maker VisionNav raised a $76M Series C extension at a $500M valuation led by Chinese food delivery giant Meituan (TC)

  • Seoul-based edtech marketplace Glorang raised a $10M Series A led by Korea Investment Partners and Murex Partners (TC)

  • Revise, a startup building rails for programming NFTs, raised a $3.5M seed round led by Alpha Wave Global and 8i (TC)

Fundraising

  • Union Square Ventures raised $275M for its eighth early-stage fund and $350M for its fourth opportunity fund (TC

Crypto Corner

  • Solana suffers seven-hour outage as NFT demand spills over (BBG)

  • Bored Ape metaverse (Otherside) frenzy raises millions, crashes Ethereum (BBG)

    • Otherside land NFTs sell out in hours as Yuga Labs rakes in $317M (TBC)

  • After eight years, Wikipedia stops accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum donations (DC)

Exec's Picks

  • Berkshire Hathaway has cruised to new highs as market indexes are deep in the red in 2022, and Warren Buffett is back in the spotlight. Akane Otani of The Wall Street Journal wrote a great piece breaking down the present and future of Buffett and his company here.

  • ICYMI: CoinFLEX.US, the exclusive sponsor of our Big Swinging Decks podcast, is officially live in the US. Learn more and sign up to get access to the first interest-bearing stablecoin 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. 

If you're a company looking to hire highly qualified candidates from a targeted audience, you can list a job opening here.

Meme Cleanser

Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast, presented by CoinFLEX.US, on SpotifyApple Music, and YouTube 🤝 

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