☕️ Good Morning.
The Fast Five → Lululemon strikes deal with Peloton, it’s Lina Khan vs. Jeff Bezos in Big Tech cage match, Goldman says odds of a government shutdown are now 90%, Delta CEO: company went ‘too far’ with Skymiles changes, and ChatGPT users can now search internet…
Here’s your MarketBriefing for Thursday:
BEFORE THE OPEN
As of market close 9/27/2023.
MARKETS:
Flat stock futures as weak month and quarter nears end.
Dow futures flat, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.1%.
Micron Tech down 3% post-bell on weak guidance; Peloton surges in Lululemon partnership.
Mixed session with slight S&P 500 and Nasdaq gains (0.02% and 0.2%), Dow down 0.2%.
10-year Treasury yield at 15-year high.
Dow -3.4% for the month, -2.5% for the quarter; S&P 500 -5.2% for the month, -4% for the quarter; Nasdaq -6.7% for the month, -5% for the quarter.
Upcoming data: jobless claims, home sales, GDP; focus on PCE price index as Fed's inflation metric.
Nike's earnings report due after today's bell.
NEWS BRIEFING
Lululemon announces 5-year deal with fellow high-end fitness brand Peloton
The FTC filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, pitting the agency’s chair, Lina Khan, against the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, in a long-awaited confrontation.
Goldman Sachs says the odds of a government shutdown are now 90%—and it could last two to three weeks (more)
As shutdown looms, companies should go public 'before Friday' -US SEC chief (more)
Republican debate recap: Haley, Scott and Ramaswamy clash as Trump courts auto workers (more)
10-year Treasury yield reaches level not seen in more than 15 years (more)
Bank of America says 5% yield requires sentiment boost (more)
Mortgage demand slumps as rates surge to 23-year high (more)
Gold, silver getting hammered by rising bond yields, strong greenback (more)
Oil prices surge to highest level in more than a year (more)
UAW again threatens to expand strikes at Detroit automakers if progress isn’t made by Friday (more)
Kia and Hyundai recall 3.3 million cars, tell owners to park outsides (more)
JPMorgan ‘options whale’ worries resurface as stocks extend drop (more)
Instacart shares fall further below IPO price (more)
Delta CEO: Company went ‘too far’ with its SkyMiles rewards program changes (more)
Elon Musk wins US Space Force contract for Starshield (more)
ChatGPT users can now browse internet, OpenAI says (more)
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg looks to digital assistants, smart glasses and AI to help metaverse push (more)
PGA Tour considers US investors to quell LIV golf deal worries (more)
Costco is selling gold bars and they are selling out within a few hours (more)
Costco CEO says more younger people are signing up for memberships (more)
McKinsey agrees to pay $230 Million to settle more opioid suits (more)
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DEALFLOW
Avalyn Pharma Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on development of targeted inhalation therapies for life-threatening pulmonary diseases, closed a $175M Series C financing (more)
Evozyne, a Generative AI company focused on therapeutic discovery and drug development, closed an $81M Series B funding round (more)
Kneron, a company developing full-stack hardware and software products for AI applications, raised additional $49M in Series B funding (more)
Doceree, a global network of physician-only platforms for programmatic messaging, raised $35M in Series B funding (more)
Slope, a B2B payments platform for enterprise companies, raised $30M in equity funding (more)
Midi Health, a women’s midlife healthcare company, raised $25M in Series A funding (more)
Series, a developer of a platform to automate businesses’ finance and operations stacks, raised $25M in seed and Series A funding (more)
Infravision, a company accelerating power grid modernization with drone-enabled power line upgrades, raised $23M in Series A funding (more)
Gem Security, a Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) company, raised $23M in Series A funding (more)
CellFE Inc., a life sciences tools company developing a microfluidics-based cell engineering platform dedicated to advancing development and manufacturing of advanced cell therapies, closed a $22M Series A financing (more)
Loge Camps, a lodging brand that enables travelers to engage with the outdoors, raised over $16M in funding (more)
Mundi, a provider of a platform for importers and exporters manage payments, collections, FX management, and insurance, raised $15M in Series A-2 funding (more)
Canvs AI, a provider of an insights platform built to unlock consumer and employee feedback, raised $15M in funding (more)
Vali Cyber, a provider of Linux cybersecurity solutions, raised $15M in Seed funding (more)
Revefi, a provider of a zero-touch platform to monitor and manage data quality, performance and costs, raised $10.5M in Seed funding (more)
EchoMark, a SaaS information protection company, raised $10M in Seed funding (more)
UserEvidence, a provider of a customer voice platform for B2B go-to-market (GTM) teams, raised $9M in Series A funding (more)
XL8, a deep-tech startup specializing in AI-powered machine translation technology, closed $7.5M Series A funding round (more)
Lucid Scientific, a life science instruments company, raised $7M in Series A funding (more)
Zerobroker, a provider of a logistics technology platform, raised $6.5M in Seed funding (more)
Partillion Bioscience Corporation, a life science tools company, raised $5M in Seed funding (more)
Boisson, a New York-based large non-alcoholic beverage retailer, raised $5M in bridge funding (more)
Machine Discovery, a software company which uses machine learning technology to accelerate compute-intensive optimization and simulation tasks, raised £4.5M in funding (more)
Axial Shift, a restaurant operations software provider, raised $4M in Seed funding (more)
Cypherleak, a cyber risk monitoring and scoring startup, raised $750K in Seed funding (more)
RealDefense, a company specializing in consumer security, privacy, and productivity software and support services, closed a multi-million dollar funding (more)
LocalCoho, an aquaculture startup that raises premium Coho salmon at an indoor farm, received new funding from Cuna del Mar (more)
Fusion Connect, a managed communications service provider (MCSP) and Microsoft Cloud Solution provider (CSP), received new debt financing (more)
M & A:
apexanalytix, a provider of global supply chain risk management data, software and services, acquired Darkbeam, a provider of supplier cyber risk management solutions (more)
Twig Labs acquires Zuke (more)
ATS purchases Avidity Science (more)
Charlesbank-backed Titan Cloud buys Leighton O’Brien (more)
Marlin-backed Virgin Pulse merges with New Mountain Capital-Backed HealthComp (more)
CRYPTO
BULLISH BITES
✈️ Meet the Delta Fliers Who DON'T Hate the New SkyMiles Rules
A chorus of travelers jeered Delta Air Lines’ recent changes to its frequent-flier program and airport lounge rules. Drowned out by the drumbeat of “Done with Delta” declarations: a subset of travelers who welcome the changes → WSJ
📕 The Reading Unlock
Entrepreneurs influenced by a single read include Joe Coulombe, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Morris Chang, Sarah Blakely, Chip Wilson and Phil Knight → Trung
☕️ With Howard Schultz Gone, New Starbucks CEO Looks to Reset
Laxman Narasimhan, who took over the top job this year, tries to mend fractured relationship between workers and headquarters → WSJ
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