Happy Friday, 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, TikTok stepped onto Amazon’s turf, Middle-Eastern job markets got cutthroat, and Robinhood went startup shopping. 🔥

Let’s dive in.

What’s hot, what’s not?

Market Commentary

• The Bank of England hiked rates by 0.5% after some chilling inflation reports. TLDR - core inflation went up, and total inflation sits at 8.7%.

• Germany is shunning Russian nat-gas supplied and locking in billions of more fuel from the US. Feeble alienation attempt?

• Turkey’s central bank (finally) ended their low-rate era with a 6.5% hike in their base interest rate to try calm ~40% inflation.

Story Roundup

1 - TikTok clashes with e-com giants. ⚔️

Social media finance gurus have told us all about how lucrative dropshipping is.

It’s apparently so lucrative, that TikTok wants to get in on it too.

They’re testing a new feature called Project S - it sounds much cooler than it actually is.

This feature is gonna let you purchase trending products directly from within the TikTok app - without having to go to someone else’s Shopify site.

They will source, pack, and ship all products by themselves, which puts them in the same leagues as Amazon and Shein.

Doing something like this makes SO much sense since TikTok has collected billions of data-points on what products sell and what products don’t.

Check-out. 🛒

2 - From Doha to Dubai - jobs get tougher to crack. 💼

Forget the American Dream - the new thing is the Arabian Dream.

Jobs in the Middle East are the most competitive and the average job listing has close to 250+ applicants.

In Dubai, this number goes to 300 applicants per role - and in Doha, you’re seeing 400+ per role.

Most of the world’s money is either moving to the Middle East (or setting up a second home) there.

Companies are willing to pay top-tier wages, and when you combine that with zero income tax, very high quality of life, and very low crime - you get a killer cocktail of job applications.

And someone’s gotta play around with that cash. 🤷

3 - Robinhood busts open the chequebook. 💸

The fintech market is currently having a massive sale, and Robinhood is taking advantage of it.

They just scooped up a little-known credit startup called X1 for a cheeky purchase price of $95 million dollars.

X1 offers an income-based credit card with rewards, points, and all that credit-card jazz.

This officially gives Robinhood their entry into the credit card market and a healthy slice of the interchange fee revenue that comes along with it.

Over it’s lifetime, X1 has raised $62 million from investors - which really makes you think.

A startup that’s raised this much money commands a higher valuation, right?

Apparently not. 🤷

4 - 3M splashes $10 billion on water contamination lawsuits. 😬

In 2018, a company called 3M got sued by a small town in Florida.

The charges?

Wide-spread water contamination and pollution of “forever chemicals”.

Forever chemicals are as deadly as they sound.

They’re substances that don’t break down in the environment or the human body - which means that they cause hormonal dysfunction, cancer, and lots of environmental damage.

3M polluted this Florida town’s water and soil for almost a decade - and they had to pay up almost $10.3 billion to take care of these charges.

Steep, steep price. 😬

5 - Italy’s restaurants meet Silicon Valley’s SPACs. 🍕

If you thought the age of restaurants was over - think again.

A concept centered around Italian food with bowling and bocce just raised $20 million at a hefty $520 million valuation.

The interesting part?

This Italian chain is going public via SPAC.

It’s a massive investment in a relatively new category called “eatertainment” - where you eat your food, and do some fun stuff while you’re eating.

Feels like 2021. 😂

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