Happy morning, Munchers! 🙏🏼

Hope you had a smashing start to the week. I apologize for the error in yesterday's issue - the newsletter platform I use decided to send the email out without the actual content. 🤦🏼

Anyhow, here is your daily dose of the news that matters, from Wall Street to Dalal Street - in 5 minutes and 22 seconds.

Yesterday, markets celebrated soothing inflation, FTX's founder got sent to the chop, and China took a trade spat to the WTO. 🔥

Let’s dive in.

What's hot, what's not?

Market Commentary

• American inflation came in on the downside and sent markets into an absolute ripper. The SP500 absolutely popped as people prep for an environment where peak inflation is behind us.

• Investors are cementing a slower pace of rate hikes, with a 85% chance of a 50bps hike and a 15% chance of a 75bps hike.

• Asian airlines and breweries are looking like they're back in vogue as China lifts their COVID restrictions big-time.

Story Roundup

1 - Inflation surprises us... in a good way! 📈

American prices have notched the slowest increase since December 2021. 

Inflation in the world's largest economy now sits at 7.1%, giving economists a cheeky downside surprise.

We've literally taken a U-turn over the last year. What a wild ride. 

Markets absolutely rocketed, with the Nasdaq shooting up 4%. As the evening went by, stocks pared gains over people realising that a calm inflation report is not enough for the Fed to put off plans to hike rates again. 

It will most definitely put Jerome Powell & Co. in a lighter mood, but interest rates are still gonna go 🆙. 

No victory laps from the Fed soon. Markets think that they'll deliver a 50 bip hike.

Red-hot. Now quite less so. 🥵

2 - SBF gets cuffed for his crimes. 💥

BOOM. 

The mastermind behind the FTX fiasco is finally getting what he deserves, and the crypto world is tuned into the fallout.

Regulators have charged Sam Bankman with defrauding investors on a "foundation of deception". 

He was arrested at his luxury penthouse in the Bahamas, and the guys in charge are gonna pack him up and extradite him to the US. 

SBF built a house of cards but sold it to the world as the safest building in crypto. People that bought into this lie got burnt, big time. 

Judgement day. 🔨

3 - Bank of England goes on a stress testing trip. 💪🏼

September's Truss-induced implosion of pension funds left the UK with a lot of unanswered questions. 

And it looks like the Bank of England wants some solutions. 

They will carry out their first of a kind stress tests on non-banking financial companies.

It's a good move to build some confidence and find any Achilles' heels - regulators turning a wider eye toward systemic risks eventually makes the system safer for everyone. 

Godspeed. ⚡

4 - China takes it's chip problems to the manager. 😤

The tech war between China and the US has taken an ugly turn. 

Xi Jinping's commerce ministry has said that America's sanctions against Chinese chips are against their legitimate rights.

They've taken it all the way to the WTO. 

America has made it hell for China to buy or develop advanced semiconductors, so they understandably hate what's going on. 

It's a high school fight with billions at stake. 💸

5 - Moderna turns COVID tech toward cancer cure. 💉

The fight against cancer is yielding some pretty positive returns. 

Moderna and Merck have teamed up to Phase III trial a mRNA cancer vaccine. 

If you remember mRNA, it's the same magical stuff that helped pharma mint billions off COVID vaccines. Turns out that it's useful against cancer too. 

This vaccine also works on all types of cancers, not just melanomas. 

Majority of the drugs clearing Phase II testing fail the third part, but Big Pharma is confident that this one has what it takes. 

Crazy moves. 🚀

A few nibbles from Pasiv 🍪

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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