Microsoft's Mega Move Approved

Microsoft's $69B Activision deal gets US judge ‘go-ahead’ despite White House objection, Meme stocks are back, Americans prepare for tighter budgets as student loan payments resume, MyPillow auctioning off hundreds of items after retailers drop product, and fraudster Elizabeth Holmes gets two years shaved off her sentence…

Author

Market Briefing
July 12, 2023

☕️ Good Morning. June consumer price index reading due before the bell.

Microsoft's $69B Activision deal gets US judge ‘go-ahead’ despite White House objection, Meme stocks are back, Americans prepare for tighter budgets as student loan payments resume, MyPillow auctioning off hundreds of items after retailers drop product, and fraudster Elizabeth Holmes gets two years shaved off her sentence…

Here’s your market briefing for today:

BEFORE THE OPEN

As of market close 7/11/2023.

Markets:

  • Dow Jones futures down 0.1%; S&P 500, Nasdaq near flat.

  • Anticipated June CPI increase: 0.3% monthly, 3.1% yearly.

  • Core CPI (excluding food, energy) projected to rise: 0.3% monthly, 5% yearly.

  • Producer Price Index for June due Thursday; pivotal in assessing inflation trajectory.

  • Market forecasts 92% chance of Fed rate hike in July.

  • Positive Tuesday for stocks: Dow up 0.9%, S&P 500, Nasdaq up around 0.7% and 0.6%.

EARNINGS

What we’re watching this week:

  • Today: AngioDynamics (ANGO), MillerKnoll (MLKN)

  • Thursday: 

    • Conagra (CAG)

    • Delta Airlines (DAL)

    • Fastenal (FAST)

    • PepsiCo (PEP)

    • Progressive (PGR)

    • Washington Federal (WAFD)

  • Friday: 

    • BlackRock (BLK)

    • Citigroup (C)

    • JPMorgan Chase (JPM)

    • State Street (STT)

    • UnitedHealth Group (UNH)

    • Wells Fargo (WFC)

  • Full earnings calendar here

NEWS BRIEFING

  • Judge declines to block Microsoft's record $69 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard (more)

  • Americans prepare for tighter budgets as student loan payments resume (more)

  • Amazon dangles deeper 'Prime Day' discounts for stressed US shoppers (more)

  • Bank of America to pay $250 mln over junk fees (more)

  • The internal memos that show how LIV Golf won over PGA Tour (more)

  • Anthropic — the $4.1 billion OpenAI rival — debuts new A.I. chatbot and opens it to public (more)

  • Kim Kardashian looking to buy back SKNN beauty business stake from Coty (more)

  • Meme stocks are back, raising a ‘Red Flag’ for the broader market (more)

  • Musk says you can be your true self on Twitter after Zuck calls for kindness on Threads (more)

  • JPMorgan adds Silicon Valley Bank veteran John China in startup, VC growth quest (more)

  • MyPillow auction necessary as stores drop product, Mike Lindell says (more)

  • Tesla settles class action Solar Roof lawsuit for $6 million (more)

  • Astranis to bring satellite internet to 2 million people in the Philippines next year (more)

  • World's biggest gallium buyer says clients stockpiling (more)

DEALFLOW

  • Sam Altman explains why he’s helping to take nuclear microreactor company Oklo public via SPAC (more)

  • Senator Warren, others warn against L3Harris's plan to buy Aerojet (more)

  • Berkshire Hathaway Energy to purchase a 50% stake in the Cove Point liquefied natural gas facility for $3.3B in cash (more)

  • TPG to buy Forcepoint unit from Francisco Partners for $2.45B (more)

  • Prompt engineering startup Vellum.ai raises $5M as demand for generative AI services scales (more)

  • Collective, a financial management platform for freelancers, raises $50M (more)

  • Sapphire Ventures plans to invest over $1B in enterprise AI startups (more)

  • LG Chem raising $2B in exchangeable bonds (more)

  • Bain Capital in talks to buy Indian ice cream maker Vadilal (more)

  • CoJourney secures $30M Series A financing (more)

  • Jirav raises $20M in Series B funding (more)

  • Puloli receives investment from Artemis Energy Partners (more)

  • Equabli raises $3.35M in additional funding (more)

  • Outverse raises $6M in funding (more)

  • Flagship raises $5M in seed funding (more)

  • Nexus PMG raises $50M in growth funding (more)

  • RecruitBot raises additional $8.2M in seed funding (more)

  • Appcast acquires Bayard Advertising (more)

  • Verifiable raises $27M in Series B funding (more)

CRYPTO

  • Coinbase soars after reaching Cboe surveillance sharing Agreement for 5 Bitcoin ETF applications (more)

  • Gensler claims more crypto turf in Washington as dissent dithers (more)

  • Tokenized U.S. Treasurys surpass $600M as crypto investors capture TradFi yield (more)

  • Cybersecurity professional accused of stealing $9M in crypto (more)

BULLISH BITES

🔥 Haute MLB: Baseball is pairing its Gen Z stars with stylists, Gucci headgear and Alexander McQueen shoes to challenge NBA's crown of cool (read more)

🔥 The ‘BAM BAM’ Indicator: The ‘Bitcoin Family’ has a special algorithm that tracks moon cycles — and it’s helped them gain 50% since the bear market bottom (indicator breakdown)

SHARES

Know someone who would enjoy this?

Thanks for reading - see you here tomorrow… -mb

‘s

Reply

or to participate.