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Good Morning,

The dollar has had its best year in a decade, summer cookout costs have inflated, China ordered 292 Airbus jets, Yellen said inflation is too high, Klarna may raise new capital at a steep markdown, crypto fund Three Arrows filed for bankruptcy, and Joe Biden tweeted at local gas station owners across the country to not make a profit on their gas sales.

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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

• On Friday, stocks began the first day of Q3 in the red before closing the session in the green

  • The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq ended the week down 2.2%, 1.3%, and 4.1%, respectively

• The 10-year Treasury yield fell below 3%, continuing its decline from a high of 3.5% on June 14th

• More data indicating a slowing economy was released: the Institute for Supply Management reported that manufacturing activity in US factories decelerated in June

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week:

  • Wednesday: Saratoga Investment Corp.

  • Thursday: Levi Strauss & Co

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the dollar against a basket of 16 other currencies, has increased 8.7% this year, hitting its best first half since 2010 (WSJ) 

• The average cost of a summer cookout has risen 17% from last year (WSJ)

• Biden trolled by oil industry group over 'White House intern's' demand to slash prices at the gas pump (Fortune)

• China's three biggest state-owned airlines will buy 292 jets from Airbus in a $37B deal (FT)

• US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that a recession isn’t ‘inevitable’ but inflation is ‘unacceptably high' (CNBC)

• The New York Stock Exchange is trying to lure Middle Eastern technology companies to list in the US (BBG)

• EU lawmakers agreed to rules to put a brake on state-backed foreign firms acquiring EU companies with annual turnovers of $520M (RT)

• Hong Kong’s dry IPO spell is set to end with big Chinese firms looking to list in the year's second half (BBG)

• Russia seized control of the international consortium behind Sakhalin-2, one of the largest oil and natural gas projects in the world, giving the Kremlin the power to decide which foreign investors are allowed to keep their stakes (WSJ) 

• The Biden administration plans to block new offshore oil drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, while allowing limited expansion in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s south coast (WSJ)

• McDonald’s is getting rid of their $1 drink deals at several locations as restaurant owners respond to inflation (WSJ)

• Tesla’s vehicle deliveries fell quarter-over-quarter for the first time in two years (WSJ)

• Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz sealed his maiden F1 victory at the action-packed British GP (F1)

• A shooting left at least six people dead at an Independence Day parade in a Chicago suburb (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• A consortium backed by KKR is emerging as the frontrunner to buy a stake in telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom's $20B wireless tower portfolio (BBG)

• American wholesaler Costco acquired the 45% stake it did not already own in its Taiwan joint venture Costco-Taiwan for $1.05B (RT)

• TD Bank is weighing a deal to acquire brokerage firm Cowen, which is currently valued at ~$667M (BBG)

• Mining company Compass Minerals is looking to sell its de-icing salt operations unit in the UK for ~$242M (BBG)

• Citigroup is discussing the potential sale of its Russian operations with privately-owned Russian companies including Expobank and insurance firm RESO-Garantia (FT)

• Natural gas company Gulfport Energy is considering a merger with Texas-based oil & gas company Encino Energy (BBG)

• BNP Paribas will exit its commodities finance business in the US and sell its US loans' book to Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ (BBG)

• Austrian property magnate Cevdet Caner will acquire a 20% stake in real estate investment firm Aggregate Holdings and become its CEO (FT)

VC

• Swedish fintech Klarna Bank is in talks to raise new equity at a ~$6.5B valuation, ~85% lower than its $45.6B valuation from last summer (BBG)

• Medical diagnostics company Visby Medical raised a $35M extension of its Series E led by Lightrock (TC)

• Juragan Material, a construction-focused B2B marketplace, raised a $4M seed round led by Go-Ventures (TC)

• PINA, a wealth management app for Indonesia’s middle to upper class, raised a $3M seed round from AC Ventures, Vibe.VC and Y Combinator (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Saudi Arabia’s Al Othaim family called off plans to IPO its malls business, Abdullah Al Othaim Markets Company, in a rare listing cancellation for the Middle East (BBG)

SPAC

• A federal grand jury subpoenaed Trump Media & Technology Group over Truth Social's planned SPAC deal with Digital World Acquisition (BBG)

• At least four SPAC Deals were canceled in 24 hours following Thursday's closing bell in the latest blow to the stumbling industry (BBG)

Debt

• Chinese developer Shimao Group failed to pay a $1B note that matured on Sunday, adding to a record year of offshore-bond delinquencies in the real estate sector (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy (CNBC)

• Crypto lender Vauld froze withdrawals and hired advisers to explore a potential restructuring (BBG)

• Crypto lender Celsius hired restructuring advisors and laid off 150 employees (CD)

• German gas giant Uniper is in talks with the government over a potential bailout package worth up to ~$9.4B (BBG)

• Agribusiness company Bunge restructured its Russian business by changing its name and moving its country of origin to Bermuda, hinting at a sale of its biggest Russian sunflower oil plant (BBG)

Fundraising

• Telegraph Hill Partners, a VC firm focused on life science and healthcare technology businesses, raised a new $525M investment fund: THP V (PRN)

• Sequoia Capital is looking to raise two new US-focused funds: a $1.5B growth fund focused on later-stage companies and a $750M fund targeting earlier-stage startups (TC)

Crypto Corner

• MicroStrategy took a record $3.4B YoY hit on its Bitcoin holdings (BBG)

• Crypto exchange platform FTX reached a deal to provide crypto lender BlockFi with a $400M credit facility while retaining the option to acquire the struggling crypto company (CD)

• Meta will shut down Novi, all but ending the libra stablecoin experiment three years after its introduction (CD)

• Voyager Digital temporarily suspended all transactions on Friday (CD)

• 51% of Latin Americans have reportedly used cryptocurrencies, according to a Mastercard survey (CD)

• NFT sales hit a 12-month low in June, totaling just over $1B (TG)

Exec's Picks

• In the wake of the current crypto meltdown, Ritholtz Wealth Management's CEO Josh Brown wrote a great piece discussing regulations, investor behavior, echo chambers, and potential opportunities. Check out his latest here.

• ICYMI: For last weekend's Exec Sum, Jack Raines created an interesting list of 10 proposals to solve our national debt problem. Check out his Exec Sum column 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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