Twitter to sue Meta

BEFORE THE OPEN

Markets:

Thursday evening saw stock futures remain largely unmoved, with investors shifting their focus towards the impending June payrolls report and potential effects on the Federal Reserve's policy approach.

• Dow and S&P 500 futures remain flat, while Nasdaq slips by 0.03%.

• Levi Strauss shares drop 6% due to profit outlook downgrade.

• Private sector adds 497,000 jobs in June, surpassing 220,000 prediction.

• ADP report raises concerns over Fed's future moves.

• Bond yields surge; 2-year Treasury hits 2007-level highs.

• Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq fall by 1%, 0.8%, and 0.8% respectively.

• Anticipation builds for Labor Department's June payrolls report; 240,000 job increase expected.

• Investors wary of further Fed policy tightening; 91% chance predicted for rate hike in July.

• All three major indexes on track for a losing week: S&P 500 down 0.9%, Nasdaq 0.8%, Dow 1.4%.

EARNINGS

What we’re watching:

• Today: AZZ (AXX)

  Next Week’s Highlights: BlackRock (BLK), Cintas (STAS), Citigroup (C), Conagra (CAG), Delta Airlines (DAL), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), PepsiCo (PEP), Progressive (PGR), UnitedHealth (UNH), Wells Fargo (WFC)

• Full calendar → here

NEWS BRIEFING

• 🚨 Musk lawyer sends letter to Zuckerberg threatening legal action, claiming that Meta hired former Twitter employees to create a clone (read letter)

• Mark Zuckerberg gloats over Threads’ 30 million signups (more)

• Meta will nuke your IG account if you delete Threads profile (more)

• Yield on 2-year Treasury note hits highest level since 2007 (more)

• Private sector companies added 497,000 jobs in June, more than double expectations (more)

• Jefferies sees turnaround in deals after prolonged drought (more)

• Banks line Up $9.4B of debt for GTCR’s Worldpay takeover (more)

• Investors warn Trudeau bond-reform proposal will backfire (more)

• China releases first open-source computer operating system (more)

• VW ready to deal with China metal curbs; chipmakers play down fallout (more)

• Mark Cuban's online pharmacy set to launch Humira biosimilar (more)

• Millennial, Gen Z employees are rejecting assignments, turning down offers, and seeking purpose (more)

• Employee well-being is turning into a new C-suite role (more)

• Delta is upgrading its fleet to bring better Wi-Fi to customers - inside look (more)

• Ford’s U.S. sales jump 9.9% for its F-Series trucks (more)

• Musk predicts Tesla self-driving cars will arrive ‘this year’ (more)

• The staying power of the Bud Light boycott (more)

DEALFLOW

• American Equity accepts $4.3B Brookfield takeover bid (more)

• Insight Partners raises $118M fund to back underrepresented VCs (more)

• Avenue Z buys communications startup Bevel for $75M (more)

• Private equity firm GTCR buys majority stake valuing Worldpay at $18.5 Billion (more)

• Tuition.io acquires Wiley's Tuition Manager business (more)

• Twitter rival Bluesky raises $8M in venture funding (more)

• La La Land Kind Cafe raises $20M (more)

• Optiversal raises $4.2M in seed funding (more)

• Ten Thousand raises $21.5M in Series A funding (more)

• Smash Park receives minority growth investment from DCA Partners (more)

• Clair raises $175M in funding (more)

• Urban SDK raises new financing round (more)

CRYPTO

• Binance key execs, many US employees leave crypto exchange amid crackdown (more)

• Bitcoin touches a 13-month high as the drumbeat for institutional demand grows louder (more)

• Taylor Swift agreed to FTX partnership, despite contrary public claims (more)

• Crypto is 'digitizing gold' and bitcoin has the power to 'revolutionize' finance, BlackRock CEO says (more)

• Yuga Labs plans to restore spark around its NFTs (more)

• Litecoin whales grow in number as halving approaches (more)

• UAE emerges as a pro-Bitcoin mining destination in the Middle East (more)

SHARES

Enjoy your day and see you tomorrow -mb