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Good Morning,

The US and England tied 0-0 in Friday's World Cup matchup, investors poured billions into bond funds this month, Black Friday sales hit record highs (as did Litquidity's), US household spending increased by $433 in October, China is getting tired of Covid restrictions, Walmart overtook Amazon in Black Friday searches, and the FCC banned US sales of Huawei and ZTE equipment. 

Quick shoutout to today's sponsor, Stream. They've got an extensive expert call library that helps institutional investors make more informed decisions. Learn more below.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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

Markets

• US stocks wobbled to a mixed close in Friday's shortened trading session 

  • All three major US indexes posted weekly gains thanks to encouraging Fed minutes

Earnings

• What we're watching this week: 

  • Tuesday: HP, Intuit

  • Wednesday: Royal Bank of Canada, Salesforce, Victoria's Secret

  • Thursday: TD Bank Group, Kroger

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Big banks in October expected a 4.875% peak Fed rate target by March (RT)

• Investors withdrew $8.6B and $840M from US and European equity funds but invested $470M in Asian equity funds last week (RT)

• Investors poured ~$16B into US corporate bond funds this month (FT)

• Short sellers covered ~$30B in short positions this month (RT)

• IPO hole is being partly offset with $24B in share sales just this month (BBG)

• Black Friday online sales hit record $9.1B despite inflation woes (AX)

• China industrial profits declined further in October amid Covid woes (RT)

• Protests erupted in China over Covid lockdown restrictions (AX)

• US household spending increased by $433 on average in October amid inflation (CNBC)

• Deutsche Bank warned European firms of peril in borrowing from US banks (RT)

• Walmart overtakes Amazon in shoppers' search for Black Friday deals (CNBC)

• US authorized Chevron to resume oil pumping in Venezuela (AX)

• Qatar is reviewing its London investments after city’s transport authority banned their ads (FT)

• FCC banned US sales of Huawei and ZTE equipment (AX)

• Foxconn offered $1.4k to new workers to quit their jobs at firm's China iPhone factory amid violent protests (CNN)

• Brazil will allow credit fintechs to initiate payment transactions (RT)

• Amazon will shut down its food-delivery business in India (RT)

• US tied 0-0 against England in their second world cup match (ESPN)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• China's CNOOC invested $1.9B in Brazil's Petrobras for a 5% stake in a production sharing agreement at the Buzios oil field (RT)

• German chemicals distributor Brenntag is in preliminary talks to buy US rival Univar Solutions (RT)

VC

• Ambassador, a referral and relationship marketing startup, raised $1.4M in debt / equity from existing investors and Sage Growth Capital (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Saudi Aramco Base Oil, a refining unit of Aramco, named banks including Citigroup and HSBC for its Saudi IPO that could raise ~$1B (BBG)

Debt

• National Bank of Greece issued $241.6M of sterling-denominated notes to mature in 4.5 years (RT)

• Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway kicked off its marketing of a potential multi-part yen bond that may price as early as Dec 1. It is offering to sell notes as short as 3 years and as long as 30 years (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Binance and other crypto firms line up bids for bankrupt Voyager Digital after the crypto lender's planned acquirer FTX collapsed (CNBC)

Fundraising

• India-based VC firm Kae Capital raised a $94M third fund to invest in fintech, SaaS, consumer tech, B2B commerce, healthtech, and D2C brands in the pre-seed to Series B stage (MNT)

Crypto Corner

• Crypto investor Digital Currency Group is $2B in debt (YH)

• Crypto lender Genesis is being probed by state regulators (BRN)

• Amber Group co-founder Tiantian Kullander unexpectedly died at 30 (CN)

• The Bahamas' attorney general defended country's regulatory regime amid FTX 'debacle' (CD)

• Miami nightclubs mourn absence of high-rolling crypto entrepreneurs (FT)

• Meet the pissed-off crypto traders who predicted (and profited from) the FTX implosion here: (TI)

Exec's Picks

• The PIT Steelers (3-6) will take on the IND Colts (4-5) in tonight’s Monday Night Football game. You may be done with watching football after the holiday weekend, but how about trading football? If you think this will be a low-scoring game, you can take the Under 39.5 total points scored, currently trading at $52 according to the market on Sporttrade, America’s only regulated sports trading exchange. This means the Under 39.5 has a 52% chance to occur. And on Sporttrade you do not have to wait until the final score of the game! You can trade out at any point or place a Limit Sell Order and go to bed. So, even if the “Total” goes over 40, you know you traded out for a profit! Because on Sporttrade, you can trade sports like you do stocks. Download on iOS anywhere. If you are in NJ or traveling to NJ you can start trading today.

• Staax is a peer-to-peer payments and investments platform that lets you pay and get paid in fractional shares of stock for everyday transactions, and they are giving away free stocks this holiday season! Want a chance to win up to $100,000? Here's how to enter: Download Staax, use the code STAAXVIP when registering, verify your identity on the Staax app, transfer in at least $50, and refer friends using the referral code in your settings page on the app, and send at least 3 friends at least $5 of stock. The giveaway runs until December 31st, 2022, so get started by downloading Staax here!*

• Ram Ahluwalia wrote a detailed thread breaking down DCG's recent letter to investors and Grayscale's 10-Q.

• If you're in the market for a portable monitor, I highly recommend ViewSonic's touch screen monitor. I've personally used this daily since the pandemic and it's been a game changer ever since. Cop it here.

• Liquid assets, literally. It’s great when your investments age like fine wine. But what if you could actually invest in fine wine? With Vint you can. Vint’s the real deal — and brings real people with decades of experience in the wine & spirits investment industries to do the hard work of sourcing incredible collections that enable you to diversify your investment portfolio. Cheers to investing in vino**

*Staax Terms & Conditions**See vint.co for full investment disclaimer. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

Holiday Merch SZN

It's cyber monday and we've got some new pieces in the merch store and select items on sale! If you're looking for some quick gift ideas for the finance hardo in your family or want to get a last minute white elephant present for someone in the office, now's your chance!

Meme Cleanser

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