Happy Friday, Munchers! 🙏

Long week, short weekend. Guess that's what life is. Hope you all have a banging Friday and enjoy the weekend partying. Bless up.

As always, here is your daily dose of the news that matters, from Wall Street to Dalal Street - in 4 minutes and 53 seconds.

Yesterday, America hit it's debt ceiling, Elon got painted as a liar, and Ukraine got some much-needed firepower. 🔥

Let’s dive in.

What’s hot, what’s not?

Market Commentary

• American markets fell hard as recession fears hammered investor confidence and kept us all on tilt.

• Disappointing earnings from some big sharks showed that cost pressures are trickling into businesses' balance sheets. Rate hikes are also creeping in.

• Mood across markets seems pretty drab. Looks like we all need to chill out and drink some chai over the weekend. ☕

Story Roundup

1 - America hits it's debt limit. 💀

America is going to hit their debt ceiling today.

$31.4 trillion. With a big, capital, bold T.

The US Treasury is apparently taking some pretty stiff measures to meet it's debt obligations.

They need to generate additional borrowing capacity (to stretch their $400bn cash stash).

First order of business is to suspend new investments in government employees' accounts.

They'll then prioritise interest payments on the government debt - so that means social security, federal salaries, and military healthcare coverage could be in trouble.

This sets the scene for a dramatic showdown between Joe Biden and the lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The stakes?

A US government default. 🤯

2 - Ukraine receives a neat boost to it's firepower. 💣

Ukraine is confident that they can still win the war.

Their buddies from the West are sending through a free flow of arms, and it looks to be game-changing for the situation.

Britain and Poland have donated a lot of heavy battle tanks to Ukraine.

In short, these are walking death machines.

Russian tech is relatively inferior, so Ukraine now has a sneaky trick up it's sleeve.

Papa Putin's problems are also snowballing. He had to demote his right-hand army general over some disastrous battlefield failures.

Maybe the tides are turning? 👋🏼

3 - Passion economy gets a dose of reality. 👊🏼

2021's high flying startups that served online creators are now being forced into a pretty painful retreat.

Platforms like Patreon and Substack have been forced to lay off staff, sideline risky business units, and abandon fundraising plans.

Companies like this are part of the "passion economy" - they allow online creators to monetise their followings.

Investments in the passion economy went from $3.3 billion to $801 million in a year - and the smart money is still concerned about frothy valuations.

If you want a perfect example of how times have changed, here's a snippet from the CEO of Patreon.

"We were swimming in money and people were begging to invest more. We dictated the terms for investors. That's not something I'd seen before".

Looks like Cali's tech bros are not immune. 💉

4 - Turns out Elon's been Tweeting in the heat of the moment. 😭

Remember when Elon told the world that he secured funding to take Tesla private?

Turns out he sent that Tweet in a car, on the way to an airport after reading an FT article.

He used the "wrong words" in a rush, and some of Tesla's investors are still angry over it.

Tesla stock soared after he sent that message - and then cratered right after, since the deal never went through.

Elon's been sued over this, and in court he was called "incoherent, incomplete, and illusory."

Musk baba needs to think before he speaks... 🤔

5 - New Zealand's PM says bye. 👋🏼

Not even the best of us are immune to burnout.

New Zealand's much-loved PM Jacinda Ardern just threw the towel in.

She's resigned as PM and said that she "did not have enough in the tank".

Her attitude has been pretty strong and she managed to steer the Kiwis through some pretty historic times - the Christchurch attacks, COVID, and a literal volcanic eruption.

End of an era? 🤷🏼

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