BEFORE THE OPEN

MARKETS:

• S&P 500 hits 2023 closing high, up 0.59%; Nasdaq rises 0.55%; Dow gains 0.82%.

• Dow achieves another 2023 high, with a 9.4% gain.

• Stocks like Ulta Beauty, Boston Properties, and Paramount drive S&P 500 to new heights.

• Fed Chair Powell dismisses rate cut expectations, yields fall.

• November sees a robust rally, ending a three-month losing streak; S&P and Nasdaq surge 8.9% and 10.7%.

• Dow posts strongest month since October 2022, up 8.8%.

• Weekly gains mark 5th consecutive week of market advances.

• December, historically favorable for equities, may continue the trend.

EARNINGS

What we’re watching this week:

• Tuesday:

  • AutoZone (AZO) - expected: $31.57 per share (+15% YoY), Revenue: $4.2 billion (+5% YoY)

• Wednesday: ChargePoint (CHPT), Gamestop (GME)

• Thursday: 

  • Broadcom (AVGO) - expected: $10.01 per share (-4.2% YoY) on $8.6 billion revenue (-4.0% YoY)

  • Lululemon (LULU) - expected: $2.28 per share (+14% YoY) on $2.2 billion revenue (+15.8% YoY)

• Full earnings calendar here

NEWS BRIEFING

Bitcoin Hits $40,000 Level for the First Time Since May 2022

Meta’s AI Chief Doesn’t Think AI Super Intelligence is Coming Anytime Soon

• U.S. stock rally could wobble after Red Sea attacks (more)

• Dovish Fed view courses through markets (more)

• Bond market euphoria shifts to debate over how low Fed will need to go (more)

• Gold soars past $2,100 to new record — and analysts don’t expect it to stop there (more)

• Oil climbs as Mideast tension back in focus (more)

• Shoppers used buy now, pay later option at record highs over holiday weekend (more)

• US to limit Chinese firms, battery parts from winning EV tax credits (more)

• US compels Saudi fund to exit Altman-backed AI chip startup (more)

• Alaska Airlines agrees to buy Hawaiian Airlines in $1.9 billion deal (more)

• Crypto execs say the bull run is underway and could lead to $100,000 bitcoin in 2024 (more)

• OpenAI delays launch of custom GPT store to early 2024 (more)

• Evergrande shares rise over 9% as liquidation hearing postponed again (more)

• Exxon Mobil CEO urges COP28 to focus on reducing emissions — not phasing out fossil fuels (more)

• 23andMe says hackers accessed ‘significant number’ of files about users’ ancestry (more)

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DEALFLOW

M & A | INVESTMENTS:

• Johnson & Johnson MedTech acquired Laminar, a medical device company, for $400M (more)

• Apparel maker Faherty explores selling minority stake (more)

• Mountain Valley Pipeline owner explores options including sale (more)

• Reverence seeks buyer for $2.5 billion stake in Osaic (more)

• Truelink purchases Ansira (more)

• Serent-backed ParentSquare buys Remind (more)

• EagleTree Capital acquires Summit Hill Foods (more)

• Nilam Resources buys Techy Trade (more)

• Veritas-backed Arcfield purchases Orion Space Solutions (more)

• Two Roads Advisors acquires Inflection Brands (more)

VC

• Ursa Major, a rocket propulsion company, raised $138M in Series D and D-1 funding (more)

• Stensul, a martech company, raised $34.5M in Series C funding (more)

• DuploCloud, a company offering a platform engineering solution to make DevOps and Infrastructure-as-Code accessible, raised $32M in Series B funding (more)

• Quartix, a fintech firm dedicated to bringing Supply Chain Finance (SCF) solutions to mid-market industrial clients, raised additional $15M in funding (more)

• Local Infusion, a provider of tech enabled infusion centers, raised $10M in Series A funding (more)

• Culmination Bio, a company building a disease-agnostic patient data intelligence platform, raised $10M in funding (more)

• Perpetual Medicine, a computational peptide therapeutics company, raised $8M in Seed funding (more)

• Darkhive, a defense tech startup advancing autonomous drones for public safety and military personnel, raised $4M in Seed funding (more)

• INNO4, a nationwide technology integrator and solutions provider, received an investment from ServicePoint, a portfolio company of Mill Point Capital LLC (more)

• GelSana Therapeutics, an advanced wound care company, raised a new funding of undisclosed amount (more)

FUNDRAISING:

• Alterra commits $1.5B to TPG Rise Climate Funds (more)

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CRYPTO

• Bitcoin tops $40K for first time in 19 months, Matrixport tips $125K in 2024 (more)

• Brooklyn’s crypto-hipster hotspot gears up for an NFT rebound (more)

• Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo faces $1B class action suit over Binance endorsement (more)

• The SEC is facing another defeat in its recycled lawsuit against Kraken (more)

BULLISH BITES

🗣 FYI: Why the entire AI world was talking about Q this week.

🧐 The deets: The inside story of Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI.

🎰 All in: Saudi Arabia’s plan to become the crown prince of gaming.

🎥 Picture perf: You can look better on video calls without even trying.

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DAILY SHARES

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