'Gemini' unleashed

Google launches Gemini — its ‘most capable’ AI model, Wall St. bank bosses warn Congress new rules risk of hurting economy, Biden forgives nearly $5B in student loans, Musk's SpaceX valued at $175 billion, and McDonald’s unveils its answer to Starbucks with ‘CosMc’s'...

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Market Briefing
December 07, 2023

☕️ Good Morning.

The Fast Five → Google launches Gemini — its ‘most capable’ AI model, Wall St. bank bosses warn Congress about economic risks, Biden forgives nearly $5B in student loans, Musk's SpaceX valued at $175 billion, and McDonald’s unveils its answer to Starbucks with ‘CosMc’s’. Full briefing ahead, but first…

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Here’s your 5-min briefing for Thursday:

BEFORE THE OPEN

As of market close 12/7/2023.

MARKETS:

EARNINGS

Enjoy your weekend.

Full earnings calendar here

NEWS BRIEFING

Alphabet (GOOGL.O) shares ended 5.3% higher on Thursday as Wall Street cheered the launch of Gemini, saying the new AI model could help narrow the gap in a race with Microsoft-backed OpenAI.

Marc Benioff’s famously employee-friendly company is becoming more Darwinian—and providing a new model for Silicon Valley.

  • US government shutdown risk rising on stalled spending talks (more)

  • Biden administration asserts power to seize drug patents in move to slash high prices (more)

  • Jobs report to give reality check to bond traders way ahead of Fed (more)

  • JPMorgan's Kolanovic says opt for cash or bonds over stocks (more)

  • Gold firms as dollar dips ahead of US payrolls report (more)

  • Soy and lithium trade being in the balance, Argentina's Milei has a China conundrum (more)

  • Spotify’s CFO is leaving, follows marketing chief out the door (more)

  • Dollar General’s returning CEO tries to drive a turnaround (more)

  • Amazon tests a $9.99 monthly unlimited grocery subscription service for Prime members (more)

  • Google is ending the year with a big update for Pixel devices (more)

  • Harvard, Penn heads walk back genocide answers after backlash (more)

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DEALFLOW

M & A | INVESTMENTS:

  • AbbVie continues buying spree with $8.7 Billion Cerevel Deal (more)

  • Ares and Sportsology are in talks for stake in MLB’s Texas Rangers (more)

  • Credit Suisse sells REIT business in Brazil to Patria for around $130M (more)

  • HGGC-backed Grand Fitness Partners buys Eight Planet Fitness locations (more)

  • Danaher completes $5.7 billion acquisition of Abcam (more)

  • Bain Capital last bidder in race for SoftwareOne (more)

  • AppsFlyer, a company specializing in marketing measurement, attribution, and data analytics, acquired oolo, a provider of an AI-powered user acquisition and monetization decision-making platform (more)

  • The Predictive Index, a provider of a talent optimization platform, acquired Charma, a provider of a performance management tool that simplifies people and team management (more)

  • Zilliant, a company specializing in price and revenue optimization and management, acquired In Mind Cloud, a provider of a digital sales platform purpose-built for manufacturers (more)

  • Workleap, a software company behind products that improve the employee experience, acquired Pingboard, an HR tech SaaS company providing org chart and employee directory capabilities (more)

  • Osano, company specializing in data privacy management, acquired WireWheel, a provider of data privacy solutions (more)

  • APG purchases Spark Power (more)

  • H.I.G. Capital acquires Mainline (more)

  • Sun Capital-backed Platinum merges with SCA (more)

  • Velocity buys Parella Motorsports Holdings (more)

  • PE-backed Mercer Advisors acquires Brighton Financial Planning (more)

VC

  • Canapi Ventures, a fintech venture capital firm investing in early to growth stage financial services companies, reportedly raised $750M for its second set of funds (more)

  • X-energy, a developer of small modular nuclear reactors and fuel technology for clean energy generation, has completed its Series C financing round with an additional $80M from Ares Management Corporation and Kam Ghaffarian (more)

  • BioStar Capital, a strategic venture capital firm focusing on medical technologies, closed its fifth fund, at $130.3M (more)

  • Gecko Robotics, a company specializing in using AI-powered software and advanced robotics to maintain and build important physical infrastructure, raised $100M in Extension funding (more)

  • Adcentrx Therapeutics, a biotechnology company dedicated to developing ADC therapeutics for cancer and other life-threatening diseases, extended ints Series A+ financing to $51M (more)

  • MaintainX, a provider of a maintenance and frontline work execution platform, raised $50M in funding (more)

  • Replicate, a provider of a platform for open source machine learning models, raised $40M in Series B funding (more)

  • Extropic, a computing company, raised 14.1M in seed funding (more)

  • Ladder, a provider of an app for strength training, raised $12M in Series A funding (more)

  • Sharpen, a providing a science-backed, early risk assessment and high-outcome digital reading program designed specifically to empower parents, raised $11M in funding (more)

  • Spade, a provider of real-time merchant intelligence for the card ecosystem, raised $10M in Series A funding (more)

  • FTN Network, a fantasy sports and betting media company, raised over $3M in Seed funding (more)

  • hey freya, a wellness products brand, raised $500K in Angel funding (more)

  • GameChanger Systems, a provider of an automated “Instant Video Game Buyback” kiosk, raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding (more)

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CRYPTO

  • Dimon says he would shut down crypto if he had a government role (more)

  • Pro-blockchain bill clears hurdle in U.S. House (more)

  • Options traders are wetting their sights on Bitcoin at $50,000 by January (more)

  • Ethereum's 'censorship' problem is getting worse (more)

BULLISH BITES

💃 On top: Taylor Swift is Time magazine’s person of the year for the second time.

🥊 Velvet gloves: Spotify’s layoff memo and the art of delivering bad news.

🎢 Take a ride: The new attraction Rockefeller Center goes 10 feet high and you can take a photo emulating that famous photo from the 1930s.

🤖 What? ChatGPT gives longer responses if you 'tip it $200,' according to one user.

🛵 Mini-me: The Cybertruck of electric scooters.

DAILY SHARES

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