BEFORE THE OPEN

MARKETS:

• Unemployment rose to 3.8% in August, a yearly high.

• Hourly earnings up by 4.3% YoY, below the expected 4.4%.

• 187,000 jobs added in August, but June and July numbers revised down by 110,000.

• 93% chance central bank will maintain current rates, according to CME Group’s FedWatch.

• MongoDB, Dell, and Lululemon stocks rose after strong earnings reports.

• Dow up 115.80 points, S&P 500 up 0.18%, Nasdaq down 0.02%.

• Dow and Nasdaq recorded best weekly performances since July, S&P 500 since June.

EARNINGS

Here’s what we’re watching this week:

• Wednesday: Dave & Buster’s (PLAY), GameStop (GME)

• Thursday: DocuSign (DOCU)

• Friday: Kroger (KR)

• Full earnings calendar here

NEWS BRIEFING

Mercedes and BMW Want to Take On Tesla. Check Out Their New Electric Concept Cars

Huawei Teardown Shows Chip Breakthrough in Blow to US Sanctions

• US unemployment rate spikes to 3.8%; labor market still has momentum (more)

• Fed seen likely done with rate hikes as job market cools (more)

  • Full impact of Fed hikes still to be seen in real economy, ex-vice chair Blinder says (more)

• Biden gets low marks on economy, major concerns about his age as Trump rematch looms, new poll shows (more)

• Moody's lifts 2023 U.S. growth forecast, cuts China's for 2024 (more)

• Dollar unlikely to lose global dominance soon even as BRICS expand, BNY Mellon says (more)

• Back-to-school US spending set to hit record high in 2023 (more)

• Oil rises to highest in over seven months on supply worries (more)

• Carbon credit market confidence ebbs as big names retreat (more)

• Copper crime ring is latest scandal to rock the metals world (more)

• Xi’s unexplained G-20 snub erodes image as global statesman (more)

• Canada's economy unexpectedly shrinks; central bank likely to hold rates (more)

• Country Garden wins bond extension in relief for China's property sector (more)

• Blackstone and Airbnb set to join S&P 500; shares climb (more)

• SoftBank's Arm to ask for $47 to $51 per share in IPO (more)

• Instacart’s IPO filing sparked an online spat between cloud rivals Snowflake and Databricks (more)

• Apple is set to embrace an iPhone charger change it didn’t want (more)

• Diamond prices are in free fall - De Beers cutting some prices by more than 40% (more)

• Pickering Energy Partners launches oil and gas investment banking unit (more)

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DEALFLOW

• Barclays explores sale of stake in $2.5 billion UK payments unit (more)

• Billionaire L’Occitane boss ends talks on potential buyout deal (more)

• UAE firm buys 30% stake in Egypt tobacco giant for $625M (more)

• Robinhood to buy back Bankman-Fried's stake from US govt for $605.7 million (more)

• RBC's $10 billion deal for HSBC unit approved by Canada's Competition Bureau (more)

• Beta Bionics, a company specializing in the development of diabetes management solutions, raised $100M in Series D funding (more)

• ConverSight, a decision unified intelligence solution provider, raised $9M in Series A funding (more)

• Sequense, a provider of a workflow automation software platform, received an investment from Alabama Futures Fund (more)

• Superframe, a company providing AI-powered tools for optimizing companies’ Go To Market tool stack configuration, raised $5M in Seed funding (more)

• Pirros, a provider of an architecture and engineering technology platform, raised $2M in Seed funding (more)

M & A:

• Amgen gets FTC's go-ahead for $27.8 billion Horizon deal (more)

• Saothair Capital Partners, a PA-based private equity firm, acquired business and assets of MJM Yachts (Washington, NC) through Seolta Holdings, LLC, a newly-formed affiliate (more)

• Harvest Integrated Research Organization (HiRO), a Singapore-based clinical research organization (CRO), acquired Courante Oncology, an MN-based clinical research provider specializing in oncology product development (more)

• IFS, a Sweden-based global cloud enterprise software company, is to acquire Falkonry, Inc. a Cupertino, CA-based Industrial AI software company that provides automated, high-speed data analysis to the manufacturing and defense industries (more)

CRYPTO

• Grayscale's legal win vs SEC makes spot Bitcoin ETF approval more likely: JP Morgan (more)

• Stablecoin reshuffling chips away at Tether’s crypto market dominance (more)

• Lawyer outlines Ripple-SEC settlement path amid Coinbase case impact (more)

• London Stock Exchange to create traditional assets trading platform on blockchain (more)

• Former Alameda CEO’s $2.5 million yacht deal exposed In FTX court documents (more)

BULLISH BITES

💍 The Rise Of Luxury Brands Of Everything…
Luxury brands have shown exceptional resilience during financial crises and steady growth over the last several decades. To keep the momentum, some of the biggest brands are tempted to expand further and explore new categories. While tempting, being ‘everything, everywhere, all at once’ is a risky strategy. Read more → Forbes

📚 Amazon's $43 Billion Ad Business, Explained…
Jeff Bezos long shunned ads. However, Amazon's juicy first-party data has enabled it to compete with Alphabet and Meta in the new digital advertising landscape. Read more → Trung

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