Happy morning, Munchers! 🙏

As always, here is your daily dose of the news that matters, from Wall Street to Dalal Street - in 5 minutes and 13 seconds.

Yesterday, European economists placed bets on a shallower downturn, Indian IT giant TCS dropped their results, and Goldman Sachs culled their crop. 🔥

Let’s dive in.

What’s hot, what’s not?

Market Commentary

• American markets ticked higher on some strong economic data - further strengthening hopes that rate hikes are coming in slower. Cooler economy means more money flowing around in stocks.

• Asian stocks jumped too, being pushed up by some data that points to one thing. Inflation is getting weaker.

• The big boys (Morgan Stanley) are telling the street not to buy the US stock market bounce. Maybe the smart money thinks that something's brewing.

Story Roundup

1 - European economists bet on shallow recession. 😅

European economists are gleeful right now.

Unemployment in the eurozone hit a record low at the same time as German factory output rose.

This is the latest in a flurry of encouraging economic data, and it all points to one thing - a shallow European recession is on the cards.

Market sentiment seems to have changed rapidly from last year's energy crisis troubles, and most folks feel that all will be well by the Mediterranean.

Life is good. 🤷🏼

2 - Indian IT giants power through a slowdown. 💪🏼

Fattening pockets but thinning margins are gonna be the theme of this earnings seasonl.

Indian IT bellwether TCS reported earnings, and Dalal Street seems to be happy.

Revenues surged 19% defying global trends - but profit missed estimates.

Operating margins declined (obviously) by a neat 3%, which put a little downward pressure on TCS's profitability.

Management seems convinced that it's all temporary, as is Mr. Market.

Time will tell where this one goes. 🤫

3 - Goldman makes life tougher for bankers. 😬

Goldman Sachs CEO DJ D-Sol is chopping up his workforce in a big way.

About 3,200 bankers are gonna be laid off from the company - that's about 6.5% of headcount.

This number is pretty close to Goldman's "worse case scenario" of 3,900 layoffs, and it's a pretty big sign that the chickens are coming home to roost on Wall Street.

These cuts are gonna hit Goldman's consumer business and investment banking divisions.

They also scrapped the "free coffee" perk they offer bankers.

So to sum up - no bonus, no job, and no coffee.

Pretty painful new year. 💀

4 - England says bye-bye to single-use plastic. ♻️

An ocean is made drop by drop, and England is doing their part.

They've banned all single use plastics - so say bye-bye to your straws, spoons, and sporks.

England uses 1.1 billion plates and 4.25 billion pieces of cutlery (a very odd ratio to me).

Of this giant trash dump, only 10% is recycled. That's a scarily low number.

England clearly wants to change things, and they've taken a big step towards doing so.

The turtles are happy with this one. 🐢

5 - Chinese Tesla owners throw hands. 👊🏼

The world's largest EV market seems to be having a little bit of friction.

Tesla just announced their second consecutive price cut in as many months - and customers are pissed.

A large group of car owwners (literally) showed up to Tesla showrooms, whining about how much value their cars have lost.

They're saying that "Tesla lied to customers" and that their "legal rights need to be protected".

Protests in China are a massive rarity. And this is the second one we've heard about in a week.

Unsettling. 🤨

Hope you enjoyed this issue of the Market Munch. If you've got any feedback - good or bad (😏) you can hit reply to this email. Thanks a ton for reading!

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Cheers, and have a lovely day. 🙏

Aryaansh