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 17 seconds.

Yesterday, investors ditched Binance over crypto market fears, Ukraine saw a renewed round of shelling, and Carlyle failed to meet a fundraising timeline. 🔥

Let’s dive in.

What's hot, what's not?

Market Commentary

• The US Fed hiked interest rates by 50 bips, marking a change in their approach to tackling inflation.

• They also reiterated that policy will need to remain tight to get inflation under control, something that markets didn't like as much.

• All eyes are now trained on the ECB's rate decision today.

Story Roundup

1 - Binance suffers from jittery client syndrome. 😨

Tremors from a FTX-sized earthquake have managed to shake Binance up.

Yesterday alone, clients withdrew over $1 billion, with 1 week withdrawals adding up to about $4 billion.

According to the CEO, Binance has about $60 billion in assets. That's more than enough to honour any amount of redemptions.

The only problem? He never publicly told anyone about their liabilities, so take it with a grain of salt.

Could a bank-run be brewing? 🫧

2 - Explosions rock Ukrainian soil. 💥

Ukraine is seeing some firepower rain down on them.

In just 4 hours, anti missile systems had to shoot down 13+ kamikaze drones from Russia along with tons of more missiles.

Most of these weapons were targeting civilian infrastructure - a key Achilles heel that Russia has managed to exploit.

They're trying to take food off plates, heating from homes, and water from mouths. Pretty sad to see. 😔

3 - Fed enters a new era. 🤩

The Fed shifted into a lower gear and hiked rates by 50 bips yesterday. That's 0.5%.

Jerome Powell and Co. have showed no intentions of straying away from their path to 2% inflation, and markets are here for it.

While rates will be hiked at a slower pace, they will still be hiked throughout the year. This is gonna keep markets tight and keep demand in check.

The Fed is also saying tha we can put peak inflation behind us and that the future seems rosier.

There's still a lot of ground to travel, though.

Hard landing. 💥

4 - Carlyle pushes back a monster $22 billion deadline. 💸

America's blazing buyout group Carlyle seems to have hit a patch of turbulence. T

They've had to push back on deadlines to raise a $22 billion fund - and it's all because of some rotten market mood.

Carlyle has simply been unable to raise enough money. That's it.

People locking their cash up in private equity are now realising some of the risks they carry. Rising rates are absolutely battering leverage, and a lot of big ticket funds are already experiencing massive outflows.

Asset managers are going on a fundraising romp, but investors still need a lot of liquidity.

Odd mood. 🤔

5 - Paytm splashes cash to buy back shares. 🤦🏼

Paytm was once Dalal Street's darling - an example of a company that dared to walk the roads that others shied away from.

Cut to today, and a lot of languishing performance has led people to question whether Paytm was all it was made to be.

They're spending an insane $103 million to buy back shares. About $127 million if you include taxes.

Paytm stock has fallen about 60% this year, and this is a desperate move by management to prop up their share price.

Can't build a house of cards and call it the safest building in fintech. ♠️

A few nibbles from Pasiv 🍪

Investing can be difficult, or it can be passive!

As the little guy, you’re up against - - the computer that is faster than you - the fund that has more money than you - the insider with more information than you

So it's no surprise that 90% of retail investors lose 90% of their money within their first 90 days of trading.

Pasiv wants to give you an edge.

They're Dubai's hottest fintech, and their goal is simple; provide long term investors with a platform to invest responsibly and manage risk better. That means things like in-app chat support, a passive income builder, a portfolio backtest engine, ESG filters and more.

Pasiv is here to help you build wealth. Their membership package comes with access to exclusive finance meetups, a basket of 5000+ stocks, fractional shares, and ETFs, all at zero commission.

The suits don’t need to win every time.

Check 'em out here.

PS - Investing involves risk. Conduct your own research before you invest. Pasiv Financial Ltd is regulated by the DFSA.

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!

You might also wanna follow up on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram.

Cheers, and have a lovely day. 🙏

Aryaansh