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- Market Munch 🍎 | 16 January 2023
Market Munch 🍎 | 16 January 2023
Fertilizers get on fire, Credit Suisse cuts jobs, and manufacturing giants grab Asia.
Aryaansh Rathore
January 15, 2023
Happy Monday, Munchers! 🙏
Hope you lot had a jam-packed weekend. Lots of rest and relaxation, but we're back at it.
As always, here is your daily dose of the news that matters, from Wall Street to Dalal Street - in 4 minutes and 53 seconds.
Over the weekend, Russian fertilizer giants minted millions, Credit Suisse got ready to cut jobs, and manufacturing giants in China expanded South. 🔥
Let’s dive in.
What’s hot, what’s not?
Market Commentary
It must be difficult being the BoJ's governor - because he's under a hell of a lot of stress. Markets have seen his policy tweaks as useless and order needs to be restored to Japanese debt markets ASAP.
Emerging market governments have gone on a borrowing binge, taking on $40bn of debt and grabbing the brightening sentiment by it's horns.
An interesting trend we're seeing is the shift of US-based companies away from equities and toward convertible bonds as the fundraising environment stalls.
Story Roundup
Plants are blooming, and business is booming.
Russian revenue from fertilizer exports soared a stunning 70% in 2022.
The biggest culprits behind this were the war, and a lot of supply chain disruptions.
Plus, the West is shying away from importing Russian products - making them 'self-sanctioning'.
So where is all this smelly stuff gonna go?
All the way East.
India, Vietnam, and Turkey have been the biggest beneficiaries of this, and they've been importing like never before.
Boom. 🌱
Blood is in the water, and sharks are circling in.
Management has warned of a $1.7 billion loss this year - one of the largest on record.
They're also firing 1/3rd of investment bankers, along with 9,000 other employees.
These problems are not good news, especially in a time when interest rates are going up.
Banks are meant to make more money when rates are hiked.
Customers deposit more cash (because they get juicier yield), and banks can charge higher interest on loans.
But big money is pulling out of Credit Suisse.
Over the last month, wealthy clients (the guys that keep the party alive) have withdrawn about 10% of all assets in the bank.
Slipping away. 😳
Foxconn and Pegatron are gonna be expanding into Southeast Asia.
No, these aren't the names of Transformers. They're actually Apple's manufacturing partners - responsible for making every single iPhone, iPad, and iMac you see.
This is an ongoing trend with big manufacturers.
They're all trying to diversify their supply chains, and in most cases, away from China.
Both of these folks see India as the best breeding ground for mega manufacturing facilities, with some interest going toward Vietnam too.
Changing world order. 🤔
Ever since they abandoned their zero-COVID policies, stuff has been going wrong in China.
Almost 60,000 people have died since early December, and major cities are having infection rates of 70-90%.
The head of the WHO stressed the importance of being transparent (classic) and there is a lot of concern going on right now.
Reports from inside the country say that there could be a ton of new variants coming out too.
Oh man. 🤦🏼
5 - Park+ remains resilient. 💪🏼
Indian startups seem pretty resilient, and a car-focused app just closed their hefty Series C round.
Park+ just raised $18 million at a $370 million valuation - and it's a big sign of how the strongest startups win.
Investors have a lot of conviction in Park+'s business model, and their 6 million-strong community of car owners.
They sell products that solve the daily issues that their community faces, which goes all the way from car washes to parkings.
Auto-tech is a fast growing market in India and beyond, and it looks like Park+ is poised to deliver.
Accelerate. 🏎️
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!
Cheers, and have a lovely day. 🙏
Aryaansh