The bet's off

Bill Ackman covers bet against Treasurys, Israel pledges ‘unrelenting attacks’ on Hamas, Chevron to buy Hess in oil megadeal, Amazon’s new humanoid robot could be a watershed moment for the industry, and Bitcoin soars to $35,000 on ETF optimism…

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Market Briefing
October 24, 2023

☕️ Good Morning.

The Fast Five → Israel pledges ‘unrelenting attacks’ on Hamas, Bill Ackman covers bet against Treasurys, Chevron to buy Hess in oil megadeal, Amazon’s new humanoid robot could be a watershed moment for the industry, and Bitcoin soars to $35,000 on ETF optimism…

Here’s your 5-minute briefing for Tuesday:

BEFORE THE OPEN

As of market close 10/23/2023.

MARKETS:

  • Stock futures rise slightly ahead of tech company earnings.

  • Mixed session on Wall Street as 10-year Treasury yield remains a focus.

  • Dow and S&P 500 down 0.6% and 0.2%, Nasdaq up 0.3% on Monday.

  • Spotify, General Motors, and Coca-Cola report earnings before the bell. Alphabet and Microsoft report after market close.

  • Investors will keep an eye on Meta reporting Wednesday and Amazon on Thursday. IBM and Intel to report later in the week.

  • Approximately 30% of S&P 500 companies expected to report this week.

  • Earnings season has generally exceeded Wall Street expectations so far.

  • Economic data on services and manufacturing sectors expected today.

EARNINGS

Here’s what we’re watching this week:

NEWS BRIEFING

The hedge fund manager believes investors may increasingly buy bonds as a safe haven because of growing geopolitical risks. Ackman also added that he removed the short because of concern about the economy.

Anticipation of a Bitcoin ETF grew after the court sided with Grayscale over the U.S. SEC in its bid to turn its huge GBTC bitcoin fund into an ETF.

  • Israel War Latest:

    • Israel pledges 'unrelenting attacks' on Hamas; US, Obama urge caution (more)

    • Hostage families face appalling dilemma as Gaza invasion looms (more)

    • War leaves Saudi Prince’s dream of a new mideast in tatters (more)

  • Ten-year U.S. Treasury yield hits 5% (more)

  • Republican search for new US House leader returns to square one (more)

  • Tesla says DOJ is probing personal benefits violations, vehicle range (more)

  • Retail credit card rates hit record high (more)

  • Bill Ackman covers bet against Treasurys, says ‘too much risk in the world’ to bet against bonds (more)

  • Goldman Sachs economists expect US home-price growth to slow next year (more)

  • BlackRock warns of US earnings stagnation, remains bullish on AI, Japan (more)

  • Chevron to buy Hess for $53 billion in latest oil megadeal (more)

  • VCs Marc Andreessen, John Doerr among among attendees at Schumer’s next AI forum (more)

  • Micron is building the biggest-ever U.S. chip fab, despite China ban

    In this article (more)

  • Amazon's new humanoid robot pilots could be a watershed moment for the industry (more)

  • Apple, caught by surprise in generative AI boom, to spend $1 billion per year to catch up (more)

    • Apple’s job listings suggest it plans to infuse AI in multiple products (more)

  • Oil giant quietly ditches the world’s biggest carbon capture plant (more)

  • Halloween chocolate is pricier this year as cocoa price soars to highest in 44 years (more)

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DEALFLOW

  • International Flavors & Fragrances mulls $3.5B sale of pharma unit (more)

  • Golden State Warriors legend Andre Iguodala has officially announced his retirement after a legendary 19-year career and launched Mosaic, a $200M venture capital fund (more)

  • HIG Capital weighs sale of sports media rights manager Sportfive (more)

  • Disney nears deal to sell $10-bln valued India business to Reliance (more)

  • Island, a leader in the enterprise browser market, raised $100M in its Series C financing round, which valued it at $1.5B (more)

  • Ternary, a provider of a multicloud spend management platform, raised $12M in Series A funding (more)

  • Creditly Corp., dba Credit Genie, a provider of a digital personal finance platform, raised $10M in funding (more)

  • Flash Pack, an adventure-travel company specializing in boutique trips for solo travelers in their 30s and 40s, raised $6.2M in funding (more)

  • Prism Data, a cash flow underwriting and data analytics platform provider, raised $5M in seed funding (more)

  • Basis, an AI platform for accounting firms, raised $3.6M in funding (more)

  • Revv, a software-as-a-service automotive repair diagnostics platform provider, emerged from stealth mode raising $2.1M in seed funding (more)

  • Laxis, a provider an AI assistant for revenue teams, raised $1.5M in seed funding (more)

  • Auction.io, a B2B SaaS provider of auction and e-commerce solutions, raised an undisclosed amount in funding (more)

  • Matter Bio, a longevity holding company focused on preserving genome integrity, received an investment from LifeSpan Vision Ventures (more)

M & A:

  • Databricks, the $43 billion analytics firm, acquires data startup Arcion for $100 million (more)

  • GameSquare (NASDAQ:GAME), a digital media, entertainment and technology company, acquired FaZe Clan (NASDAQ:FAZE), a gaming, sports, culture and entertainment company (more)

  • Aurora Payments, a payment technology company, acquired VN Systems, a merchant services provider (more)

  • Alaya.bio, a vivo gene delivery biotech company, acquired all assets previously owned by Ixaka France, a preclinical-stage immunotherapy biotech company specializing in in vivo CAR T-cell therapy (more)

  • Ooma, a provider of a smart communications platform for businesses and consumers, acquired 2600Hz, a provider of a business communications applications targeted at resellers and carriers, for approximately $33M (more)

  • SEW, a company specializing in AI-powered connected customer (CX) and workforce (WX) experience industry cloud platforms, acquired GridExchange, a provider of a transactive energy software platform, from Alectra Utilities Corporation (more)

  • PicnicHealth, a patient-centered healthcare evidence generation company, acquired AllStripes, a platform dedicated to generating evidence about the rare disease community (more)

  • Teleo Capital will merge Sharpen Technologies, a provider of cloud-based contact center software, and Plum Voice, a leader in AI-powered voice-based customer interaction technology (more)

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CRYPTO

  • Michael Saylor's $4.7B Bitcoin bet back in the green (more)

  • Bitcoin history supports bulls after 10% weekly jump on ETF speculation (more)

  • SEC has 3%-14% chance of success in Ripple appeal, lawyers predict (more)

  • IRS proposes unprecedented data-collection on crypto users (more)

BULLISH BITES

💰 Money Managers with $100 trillion start confronting end of the bull market

☎️ Telephone calls are turning into ‘appointment only’

🤖  Moody's has started using generative AI to create its reports

☕️ Order a Starbucks latté with one push of an iPhone button

🎨 Now anyone can create amazing content like a pro - try Canva for free

DAILY SHARES

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