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Twitter lawyered up to sue Musk, Spirit delayed its merger shareholder vote, European gas prices fell slightly from their peak, job numbers came in hot, American confidence in news hit an all-time low, and Djokovic won his seventh Wimbledon title.

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

• Friday’s session was largely flat, but stocks across the board finished the week in the green

  • The S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq ended the week up 1.9%, 0.8%, and 4.6%, respectively

  • The Nasdaq rose every day last week for its longest winning streak of the year

• The Labor Department reported that the US added 372K jobs in June, well above the expected 250K, and the unemployment rate held at 3.6%

• Earnings season for Q2 kicks off this week with investors eager to see how companies fared amidst high inflation

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week:

  • Tuesday: PepsiCo

  • Wednesday: Delta Air Lines

  • Thursday: JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, TSMC

  • Friday: UnitedHealth Group, WellsFargo, Citibank, Progressive, BlackRock, PNC Financial Services

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Twitter hired merger law heavyweight Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to sue Elon Musk for backing out of his $44B takeover of the company (BBG)

• Spirit Airlines delayed a shareholder vote for a third time to continue discussions of its merger options with Frontier Airlines and rival suitor JetBlue Airways (BBG)

• European gas prices fell away from four-month highs last week after Norway’s government intervened to end an oil and gas strike (CNBC)

• Shell will build Europe’s largest renewable hydrogen plant in the Netherlands to help power a regional Shell refinery (CNBC)

• Leaked files revealed that Uber broke laws, duped law enforcement and secretly lobbied governments for five years from 2013-17 (GU)

• Europe is preparing for a total cutoff of Russian gas supplies as the Nord Stream Pipeline is set to close for maintenance today (WSJ)

• President Biden will visit the Middle East this week, beginning in Israel and ending in Saudi Arabia (NYT)

• Trump slammed Elon Musk over Musk's effort to buy Twitter (AX)

• NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the NFL will select a new Sunday Ticket partner by fall (CNBC)

• Americans' confidence in newspapers and television news has plummeted to an all-time low, according to the latest annual Gallup survey (AX)

• At least 14 people were killed on Sunday in a mass shooting in Johannesburg, South Africa (AX)

• Charles Leclerc overcame a late reliability scare to secure victory at the F1 Austrian GP (F1)

• Novak Djokovic beat Nick Kyrgios to claim his seventh men's singles Wimbledon title and fourth in a row (YHOO)

A Message From Eight Ball

A Macro Newsletter with Skin in the Game

In Skin in the Game, Nassim Taleb said, "Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio."

Every day, economists and talking heads give their predictions about the economy, interest rates, and the stock market. "We are going into a recession!" "Oil is going to $150 per barrel!" And every day, most of these predictions are wrong. The problem is that none of these economists put their money where their mouth is, so their accuracy doesn't matter.

We launched Eight Ball to solve this problem. With our new newsletter, Eight Ball, we use data provided by real-time prediction markets to see where investors are forecasting interest rates, oil prices, GDP growth, and more.

Our forecasts are determined by investors who put their real money on the line, not media personalities looking for air time.

If you want economic forecasts that have "skin in the game," subscribe to Eight Ball here!

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Elon Musk is looking to end an agreement to buy social media giant Twitter for $44B amid dissatisfaction over the company's bot account information (BBG)

• World's biggest duty-free operator Dufry agreed to buy a 50.3% stake in Italian catering company Autogrill and will bid for the remaining Autogrill shares to form a $6B travel retail group (BBG)

• Thai bank SCB X is considering options including a sale of its SCB Asset Management unit that could value the business at up to $1.5B (BBG)

• State-owned PT Bank Negara Indonesia is considering a potential sale of its 60% stake in insurance subsidiary PT BNI Life Insurance that could value the unit at ~$1B (BBG)

• Luxembourg-based steel product manufacturer Tenaris will acquire US steel pipe producer Benteler Steel & Tube for $460M (RT)

• Japan’s Norinchukin Bank acquired a ~10% stake in Hong Kong financial group Dah Sing Financial Holdings from Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ (BBG)

• Chinese state-owned conglomerate CITIC Group is in talks to buy a stake in insurance company Dajia Insurance after the company failed to find qualified private buyers (BBG)

VC

• Cybersecurity and cyber insurance startup Coalition raised a $250M Series F backed by Allianz X, Valor Equity Partners and Kinetic Partners, bringing the company's valuation to $5B (TC)

• Innoviti, a payment focused fintech startup, raised a $45M Series D led by Panthera Growth Partners (ET)

• Computer cooling solutions Iceotope Technologies raised ~$36M in a funding round led by ABC Impact (PRN)

• Silicon Valley-based one-click checkout commerce startup DEUNA raised a $30M Series A led by Activant Capital (TC)

• 011h, a startup using mass timber to offer sustainable construction, raised a ~$25.4M Series A led by Redalpine (TC)

• Virtual/at-home cardiac rehabilitation program Moving Analytics raised a $20M Series A co-led by Wellington Access Ventures and Seae Ventures (TC)

• Probiotics and live biotherapeutics R&D company Zhiyi Biotech raised a $15M Series B from investors including Qingkong SinoKing Capital, SDIC Venture Capital, KIP and others (PRN)

• Ancilio, a Singapore-based SaaS provider for the insurance ecosystem, raised a $3M seed round from Fermion (Ancilio)

SPAC

• Tanzanian conglomerate MeTL Group plans to float an agriculture company worth up to $4B in New York or London via a SPAC (RT)

Debt

• Chinese property developer Ronshine China missed interest payments worth $27.9M on two notes in another blow to China's embattled property market (RT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Embattled cryptocurrency lender Celsius hired new lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis to advise on potential bankruptcy filings (WSJ)

• German gas giant Uniper submitted a bailout application for government support after experiencing extreme financial distress amid Europe's ongoing energy crisis (CNBC)

Fundraising

• Technology-focused investment firm Insight Partners is in talks to raise a new $20B flagship fund just months after raising the same amount for a predecessor vehicle (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• Decentralized lending protocol MakerDAO voted to allow $100M in DAI loans to The Huntingdon Valley Bank (CB)

• The FDIC is looking into how bankrupt digital-asset firm Voyager Digital marketed itself to customers (BBG)

• Britain asset managers are lobbying the government for a new fund category that uses blockchain technology (FT)

• A lawsuit filed by ex-Celsius investment manager Jason Stone is accusing the company of being a 'fraud' and 'ponzi scheme' (CNBC)

• World’s largest bitcoin fund Grayscale sued the SEC after they denied Grayscale’s application to convert its GBTC bitcoin trust to a spot ETF (CNBC)

Exec's Picks

• Matt Levine has delivered a Hall of Fame performance on his coverage of the Elon-Twitter saga, and his weekend opinion piece on Musk attempting to ditch the deal was masterclass. Check it out 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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