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Thousands were stranded at Burning Man after a storm turned the desert into muck, investors are feeling antsy after a summer rally, Delta is the US’s top airline in several categories, Xi is skipping the G20 summit, diamond prices are in free fall, and another Binance exec left the company.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks inched slightly higher as investors weighed the latest US jobs report data

  • The Dow led indices with a 0.33% gain

• Asian stocks surged upwards, led by Hong Kong’s HSI

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Zscaler, Github, Asana

  • Wednesday: UiPath, Gamestop, C3.AI, Chargepoint

  • Thursday: DocuSign

  • Friday: Kroger

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Thousands leave Burning Man after weekend mired in mud (WSJ)

• Biden gets low marks on economy and major concerns about his age as he looks to rematch Trump (CNBC)

• Investors head into fall with jitters after summer rally (WSJ)

• Mercedes and BMW want to take on Tesla (CNBC)

• Why China is avoiding using ‘bazooka’ to spur economy (BBG)

• Delta is the No. 1 domestic airline for on-time arrival, service, comfort and more (CNBC)

• Musk blames Anti-Defamation League for X’s US ad sales slump (BBG)

• Iran slows buildup of near-weapons-grade nuclear fuel (WSJ)

• Germany is the ‘sick man of Europe’ - and it’s causing a shift to the right (CNBC)

• Warren Buffett’s green cash washes over coal country (WSJ)

• Oil executives are surprisingly optimistic on Chinese demand (BBG)

• Chinese gate-crashers at US bases spark espionage concerns (WSJ)

• Chevron faces two-week total strike at Australia LNG projects (RT)

• Xi to skip G20 summit in India, China to send Li instead (CNBC)

• Teardown of Huawei’s new phone shows China’s chip breakthrough (RT)

• North Korea’s Kim Jong Un expected to meet Putin in Russia (WSJ)

• Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• The FTC accepted a binding settlement from Amgen that allows its $27.8B acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics to proceed (BBG)

• CVC Capital Partners is nearing a deal to acquire $17.3B infrastructure investor DIF Capital Partners (BBG)

• Canada’s Competition Bureau approved Royal Bank of Canada’s $10B offer to buy HSBC’s domestic unit (RT)

• L’Occitane International’s billionaire chairman ended talks to potentially take the $6.5B skin care company private (BBG)

• SentinelOne denied recent reports that the $5B cybersecurity company was exploring a sale (CNBC)

• Albemarle, the world’s largest lithium producer, raised its bid for lithium producer Liontown Resources to $4.3B, which Liontown’s board backed (WSJ & RT)

• Saudi Arabia’s PIF will create a new national steel giant with its $3.3B EV acquisition of the metals unit of chemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries (BBG)

• Barclays is exploring a stake sale of its $2.5B UK payment processing unit to find a partner that will help grow the business (RT)

• Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail Ventures is in talks with global investors to raise $2.5B by the end of September ahead of a possible stock market listing (RT)

• EU is set to block US online travel site Booking Holding’s $1.8B acquisition of Sweden’s Etraveli Group over competition concerns (FT)

• Cemex is exploring a sale of its Dominican Republic business, which could fetch more than $1B (BBG)

• European PE firm Permira will buy UK biopharmaceutical services company Ergomed for $886M (RT)

• UAE's Global Investment Holding will buy a 30% stake in Egypt’s main tobacco products maker Eastern for $625M (RT)

• Robinhood will buy back SBF’s stake in the digital broker for $606M from the United States Marshal Service (RT)

• British retailer Next will raise its stake in upmarket fashion chain Reiss Group to 72% from 51% by buying Warburg Pincus’ shares (RT)

• Nestlé divested its peanut allergy business Palforzia, which it acquired three years ago for $2.6B, after insufficient demand (FT)

• Octopus Energy Group will acquire Shell’s home energy retail business in the UK and Germany for an undisclosed sum (BBG)

• Nigerian energy company Oando bought Agip Oil Company from Italy’s Eni (RT)

VC

• Subscription canine cuisine startup Butternut Box raised a $354M round from General Atlantic and L Catterton (TC)

• Indian electric vehicle startup Ather Energy is raising an additional $66.5M from current investor Hero MotoCorp, the world’s top two-wheeler maker (TC)

• Superluminal Medicines, a generative biology and chemistry startup, raised a $33M seed round led by RA Capital Management (FN)

• Innovac Therapeutics, a biotech startup focused on mRNA therapeutics, raised an $18M Series A led by Elikon Venture, Vision Plus Capital, Yunion Healthcare Ventures, and more (FN)

• AskUIRaises, a German UI automation company, raised a $4.6M seed round led by Eurazeo (FN)

• Facets.cloud, a self-serve infrastructure management platform, raised a $4M seed round led by 3one4 Capital (FN)

• Stroom, a startup developing a Bitcoin liquid staking protocol in the Lightning Network, raised a $3.5M seed round led by Greenfield (FN)

• Woba, a Danish startup providing an HR platform for employee retention, raised a $3.2M seed round from PreSeed Ventures and EIFO (FN)

• Dental tech startup Mimetrik raised a $2.5M seed round led by Northern Gritstone (FN)

• Embedded finance platform Anchor raised a $2.4M seed round led by Goat Capital (TC)

• AI health and wellness platform Miri raised a $1.2M pre-seed round led by Sassafras Investments (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• SoftBank Group lined up customers Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet, and AMD as strategic investors for Arm’s $50B-$55B IPO (RT)

• German medicine container maker Schott Pharma is planning an IPO in September and could seek a $4.3B+ valuation (RT)

• German tank gearbox maker Renk is planning an IPO in September and could be valued at ~$2.7B (RT)

• Chinese EV maker Hozon Auto appointed Morgan Stanley and China International Capital Corporation to work on a Hong Kong IPO that could raise up to $1B (RT)

• Filipino water company Maynilad Water Services is mulling a Manila IPO that could raise $750M-$1B (BBG)

• Omani energy firm OQ plans to sell a 49% stake in its gas pipelines unit in a domestic IPO that could raise up to $800M (BBG)

• Cloud and data security startup Rubrik, which is backed by Microsoft, is on track to hold its IPO this year and could raise $500M-$700M (BBG)

Debt

• India's Jio Infocomm, the telecom unit of Reliance Industries, is in talks to raise $2B in offshore loans from BNP Paribas to fund the purchase of 5G network gear from telecom Ericsson (RT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Carvana completed its debt restructuring plan, slashing $1.3B worth of debt and saving the car seller $455M in annual interest expenses (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• London Stock Exchange Group is looking into using blockchain to build an ‘end-to-end digital market ecosystem to raise and transfer capital across asset classes’ (RT)

• Former SEC chair Jay Clayton believes that spot-Bitcoin ETF approval is ‘inevitable’ despite delays (CT)

• Binance’s Global Product Lead departed the company, one of many executives leaving the exchange (CD)

Exec’s Picks

• Caroline Mimbs Nyce covered the weird ways in which driverless cars are changing American streets in The Atlantic.

• Corey Hoffstein shared 15 lessons from his 15 years running Newfound Research.

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