July 28th - The Week Ahead

In partnership with

Welcome Back! Let’s get you all the information you need to get ready for the week.

The Week Ahead Of Us 🔍

3Q Earnings are kicking off! We’ve got some big names on deck this week, including Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Amazon! Fingers crossed given how much of the Nasdaq and S&P 500 they make up 🤞 

• Monday: McDonald’s, ON Semi, SBA, Loews, Cushman Wakefield

• Tuesday: Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Merck, AMD, Pfizer, S&P, Arista Networks, American Tower, Mondelez, Starbucks, Canadian Pacific, Phillips 66, PayPal, EA, Corning, Sysco, Gartner, Howmet Aerospace, Archer-Daniels Midland, Live Nation, Nomura, Match Group, SoFi, Informatica

• Wednesday: Meta, Mastercard, T-Mobile, Qualcomm, Arm, Lam Research, Boeing, KKR, Marriott, Mizuho, Aflac, MetLife, Hess, Kraft Heinz, eBay, Western Digital, GFL, MGM Resorts, Wingstop, Pilgrim’s Pride, Etsy, Jazz Pharma

• Thursday: Apple, Amazon, Toyota, Shell, Intel, ConocoPhillips, Booking, Vertex, Anheuser-Busch, Ferrari, Cigna, Thomson Reuters, Apollo, Coinbase, Monster Beverage, Microchip, Moderna, Prudential, Barclays, DoorDash, Hershey, Block, MicroStrategy, Cloudflare, Roblox, Blue Owl, Snap, GoDaddy, DraftKings, Clorox, XPO, Twilio, Roku, Crocs

• Friday: Berkshire Hathaway, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Ares, Berry Global, Icahn Enterprises, Cinemark, Perella Weinberg Partners

A Message from our Sponsor

Unlock Daily Trading Insights with TheoTrade – Free for 30 Days!

Dear Trader,

Imagine a room where trading ideas are shared candidly each day with thousands of traders, by seasoned professionals…

Well imagine no more…

Welcome to TheoTrade - a revolutionary collection of seasoned traders guiding both professional and new traders through the kaleidoscope known as the stock market… sharing profitable trades, measuring risk, and having fun while doing it.

[Join Now and Trade Live]

Don Kaufman / TheoTrade

P.S. For the next thirty days I’ll be extending complimentary access to my Options Quick Start Masterclass.

The Main Stories 🔍

JP Morgan Gives Staff An AI-Powered ‘Research Analyst’ Chatbot: JP Morgan are giving 50,000 employees an AI powered “Research Analyst” chatbot to help with their day to day. The AI is described as helping teams write idea generation and summarize documents. JPM CEO Jamie Dimon has previously described how he wants AI to serve as a co-pilot, or to even replace, human work flow, so it’s no surprise he’s leading the AI charge from a Banking standpoint.

OpenAI is ready to challenge Google: Last week, OpenAI announced that it’s testing SearchGPT, its direct competitor to googling something. SearchGPT will pull in real-time info and provide a clear link to sources, providing answers in a visually favorable way than some may find superior to Google. While this isn’t ready, it was unimaginable a couple years ago to imagine “Googling” facing competitive pressure, but ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude are among the AI generated search engine alternatives that are aggressively growing.

X (Twitter) Revenue Has Fallen More Than 83% since 2022: We’ll let the tweet below tell the story of X’s massive loss of advertisers over the past couple of years…

More Headlines 🍿 

• 2Q U.S. GDP growth came in at 2.8%, well above expectations of 2.1%

• The DoJ revealed that TikTok sent sensitive data on U.S. users to its parent company in China

• The Olympics in France have kicked off, but good news Americans - Salt Lake City will be hosting the 2034 Winter Olympics

• Bill Ackman’s fundraise for a public closed-end fund is still expected to go public, with Ackman squashing rumors that the IPO has been pulled on lackluster demand. After initially targeting $25 Billion, the fund only garnered $2.5-$4 Billion of interest

• Chipotle portion control has been denounced by management - with the CFO telling investors during earnings last week that their focus is on the consumer getting larger portions, with no skimping tolerated

• Meet the Middle Market Private Equity Associate who will be rowing for the U.S. at the Olympics. Olivia Coffey, a Senior Associate at One Equity Partners is our new favorite olympian

• The Secret CFO put out a CFO and Senior Finance Professional compensation survey. This was a great read for corporate finance folks!

• Southwest Airlines is doing away with “free for all seating” and bringing on board assigned seating. We’ll get a better sense as to why they’re revamping this come their late-September investor day

• How the Murdoch Family is “Real Life Succession” - The Fox Mogul’s spurned children have been battling Rupert Murdoch quietly behind the scenes…until now

• Universal Music Group had an ugly earnings report, plunging the stock and due in part to Taylor Swift’s label posting slowing streaming growth

• Newell Brands shares jump on a turnaround plan

• Separately - I run a Fantasy Football Newsletter that helps you figure out who to draft in Fantasy Football. With the season approaching, we’re going to have a lot of posts dropping in August. We have a post on what QBs you need to draft later this week. Subscribe for free automatically here 🤝 

Learn from investing legends

Warren Buffett reads for 8 hours a day. What if you only have 5 minutes a day? Then, read Value Investor Daily. We scour the portfolios of top value investors and bring you all their best ideas.

Subscribe with one click.

M&A Transactions💭 

Endomag, developer of a magnetic sensing technology company, was acquired for $310.0M by Hologic (NAS: HOLX).

SPATCO Energy Solutions, distributor of liquid handling equipment, was rolled into the continuation fund Kian Capital Continuation Fund from Kian Mezzanine Partners II through a $230.0M deal.

MedLab Essentials, developer of cell and gene therapy, has reached a definitive agreement to be acquired for $100.0M by Logiq (PINX: LGIQ).

2 Luxury Stores of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group were acquired for $160.21M by Blackstone (NYS: BX).

KCA Deutag, operator of a drilling, engineering and technology company, has reached a definitive agreement to be acquired for $2.53B by Helmerich & Payne (NYS: HP). Moelis and PJT advised on the sale.

Instructure (NYS: INST), an education technology company, has reached a definitive agreement to be acquired for $4.8B Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (NYS: KKR). JP Morgan and Macquarie advised on the sale.

The Residential Mortgage Servicing Business of Flagstar Bank (NYS: FBC) has reached a definitive agreement to be acquired for $1.4B by Mr. Cooper Group (NAS: COOP). Jefferies advised on the sale.

Fiberklaar, provider of fiber optic services, has reached a definitive agreement to be acquired for $266.29M by Proximus group (BRU: PROX).

Fentura Financial (PINX: FETM), a bank holding company, has reached a definitive agreement to be acquired for $180.4M by ChoiceOne Bank (NAS: COFS). Hovde Group advised on the sale.

Evri, provider of logistics services, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired for $3.46B by Apollo Global Management (NYS: APO).

Masdar Capital has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a Solar Portfolio from Endesa (MAS: ELE) for $884.38M.

Edison Stoccaggio, operator of storage facilities, has reached a definitive agreement to be acquired for $606.19M by Snam (MIL: SRG).

Scienture, operator of a pharmaceutical research company, was acquired for $103.0M by TRxADE Health (NAS: MEDS).

Premier Financial (NAS: PFC), a financial holding company, has reached a definitive agreement to be acquired for $987.0M by WesBanco (NAS: WSBC).

Fikes Wholesale, wholesaler of petroleum products, has reached a definitive agreement to be acquired for $1.15B by Casey’s (NAS: CASY).

Private Placement Transactions💭 

LeafLink, operator of a wholesale cannabis marketplace, has raised $125.0M of Series D venture funding led by CPMG, Nosara Capital, and L2 Ventures.

Baichuan AI, developer of a general AI services to build large model bases, has raised $688.51M led by Tencent Investment, Xiaomi Technology, and Alibaba Group at a pre-money valuation of $2.07B.

Autobahn Therapeutics, developer of regenerative medicines and a brain-targeting chemistry platform, has raised $100.0M of Series C venture funding led by ARCH Venture Partners, Newpath Partners, Monograph Capital, and Canaan Partners at a pre-money valuation of $125.0M.

Imperative Care, developer of stroke diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation technology, raised $150.0M of Series E venture funding led by Ally Bridge Group.

DevRev, developer of a business software designed to streamline product development and customer service, has raised $100.83M of venture funding from undisclosed investors.

Chainguard, developer of a supply chain security software, has raised $140.0M of Series C venture funding led by Redpoint Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and IVP.

Noteworthy Chart 🧭

A Look at Rupert Murdoch’s Empire:

Best of YouTube ⌚️

Jim Cramer discussed last week how Consumers are bargain hunting:

Meme Cleanser 😆