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Good Morning,

What an incredible weekend of football (and American football). Messi led Argentina to a World Cup victory over France, SBF is giving consent to extradition to the US (lol), China is stepping up support for its economy in 2023, Elon asks twitter users to decide if he should step down, and Goldman is planning a wave of layoffs.

Did your World Cup and NFL bets get busted by last-second plays? Sporttrade lets you trade in and out of your bets in real-time, letting you lock in those gains before the game ends. Check them out here.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 12/16/2022 market close.

Markets

  • US stocks dropped for a third straight session as recession fears continued to mount

    • The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both declined 2%+ on the week

    • All three major US indexes notched their second straight week of declines

  • The pan-european Stoxx 600 closed 1.1% lower to hit a near-five week low

  • Canada's TSX fell to a five-week low

Earnings

  • Accenture beat Q1 EPS and revenue estimates but forecast below expected Q2 sales due to spending pullback from clients postponing business improvement projects; their stock fell 5.9% on Friday (RT)

  • What we're watching this week:

    • Tuesday: Nike, FedEx

    • Wednesday: Micron

    • Thursday: CarMax

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • Americans expect a worsening US economy in 2023 (WSJ)

  • US equity funds saw their first weekly net inflow in four weeks (RT)

  • EU is considering a lower gas price cap in an attempt to approve a deal today (RT)

  • China will step up support for economy in 2023 amid Covid pains (RT)

  • US State Department launched a 'China House' to sharpen China policy (RT)

  • Germany is set to assume $230B in Uniper derivatives (RT)

  • The SEC is scrutinizing Blackstone's real estate fund following an increase in investor pull-outs (BBG)

  • BlackRock has pulled in more funds from US retail investors than rivals YTD (FT)

  • Goldman Sachs plans to cut up to 8% of its employees in January (CNBC)

  • Citigroup reached an agreement with all 10 Revlon lenders over its ~$500M accidental payment fiasco (RT)

  • Elon Musk's team is seeking new funding for Twitter (RT)

  • SCOTUS agreed to hear dispute over Slack's direct stock listing (RT)

  • BoE chair Bradley Fried will join Goldman Sachs International as chair (RT)

  • Messi led Argentina to victory against France in the World Cup finals, securing undisputed goat status (FT)

A Message From Sporttrade

Buy, Sell, Hold – But Make it Sports

If you can trade in and out of stocks with a few taps on your phone then why can’t you do that with your sports bets? Let me introduce you to Sporttrade.

Sporttrade is not another sportsbook. They’re not in the business of betting against you. They are not the “house”. It was built for people like us in mind. It’s the only regulated sports trading exchange that lets you trade in and out of your sports bets at any time – just like stocks or options.

As an exchange they match buyers and sellers, but instead of listing stocks, they list sports outcomes called “contracts.” Like “Eagles to win the NFC East”, or “Rams to beat the Packers.” A “contract” is simply a bet that settles at $100 if the outcome occurs, and $0 if the outcome doesn’t occur.

This is trading sports. Not betting sports. So, you no longer have to sweat over “Will this bet win outright?” It’s simply like everything else you’re used to – “Will this asset go up in value?”

Let’s take tonight’s NFL game – Rams vs Packers. The Rams may or may not have some new life with quarterback Baker Mayfield. They are currently trading at a “buy” of $27.5 or +258 (meaning they have a 27.5% chance to win the game), according to the market on Sporttrade.

That's a deep discount for the former SB Champs!!

But we’re not just talking about buying and holding here. Sell if the Rams go up 7-points or set a limit order and go to sleep. If Baker tries to make another 4th quarter comeback and fails this time, you’ve already traded out. All while you’re asleep. No other sportsbook can offer that!

Download on iOS anywhere. If you are in NJ or travel to NJ you can start trading today.

Pricing subject to change. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ) 21+

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Japan Industrial Partners may lower its bid for industrial conglomerate Toshiba to under $15B, down from $16B+ (RT)

  • Aerospace & defense company L3Harris Technologies is nearing a deal to buy US rocket maker Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.7B (RT)

  • Advent International agreed to buy satellite owner and weather forecaster Maxar Technologies in a $4B deal (BBG)

  • JPMorgan agreed to buy a 48.5% stake in Athens-based payments fintech Viva Wallet for $800M+ (RT)

  • A Chinese state-owned shareholder agreed to buy a 70% stake in logistics and commercial developer China South City’s projects in the central city of Xian for $717M (RT)

  • Spanish oil producer Repsol agreed to buy local developer Asterion Energies for $597M (BBG)

  • Investor VF Corp is considering selling backpack maker Jansport at a potential ~$500M valuation (BBG)

  • Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai plans to sell 8% of his stake in the e-commerce company; the shares he plans to sell currently have a market value of ~$260M (BBG)

  • UniCredit signed a deal with asset manager Azimut to set up shop in Ireland, which UniCredit will gain control of in 5 years (RT)

VC

  • Crypto trading firm Amber Group raised a $300M Series C led by Fenbushi Capital (TC)

  • Arcadia, a climate-tech startup enabling the energy transition, raised $125M in funding led by Magnetar Capital (PRN)

  • Fashion startup Virgio raised a $37M Series A at a $161M valuation led by Prosus Ventures, Alpha Wave, and Accel (TC)

  • Kuona, a Mexican startup using machine learning to analyze promotions, raised a $6M seed round led by Cometa (TC)

Debt

  • IMF approved a 46-month $3B financial support package for Egypt (YH)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

  • IT firm Avaya is nearing chapter 11 bankruptcy filing (WSJ)

  • German utility Uniper's CEO asked shareholders to approve Germany's $52.9B bailout or risk insolvency (RT)

Fundraising

  • Solo GP Nichole Wischoff raised a $20M second fund to primarily invest in B2B pre-seed / seed stage startups (TC)

Crypto Corner

  • SBF will not contest extradition to the US (RT)

  • Auditor Mazars will halt crypto work for crypto firms including Binance and Crypto.com (BBG)

  • Dutch crypto exchange Bitvavo is trying to recover $296.3M from US-based Digital Currency Group (RT)

  • Donald Trump raised $1M by selling NFT 'trading cards' of himself (BI)

  • Crypto’s one time fans are calling it quits after FTX collapse (WSJ)

Exec's Picks

  • Eight Sleep is a high-tech smart bed system that has taken Silicon Valley by storm. With a built-in heating and cooling system, multiple foam layers to deliver comfort, and analytics tracking to help you optimize your sleep and recovery, Eight Sleep is the complete package. Upgrade your mattress game here, and use code "LIT" at checkout for a great discount!

  • Oaktree Capital published a list of 2022 year-end book recommendations their partners are reading. Check out the full list and their thoughts here.

    • Howard Marks (Co-Chairman) is reading: "Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts" by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson

    • Jay Wintrob (CEO) is reading: "Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch" by David Mamet

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:

Post a Job

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