Happy morning, Munchers! 🙏

As always, here is your daily dose of the news that matters, from Wall Street to Dalal Street - in 4 minutes and 55 seconds.

Yesterday, Blackstone limited investor withdrawals, US inflation data gave us something to smile about, and Credit Suisse's social media disaster seemed to be over. 🔥

Let’s dive in.

What's hot, what's not?

Market Commentary

• King Dollar took another tumble down the castle steps as traders bet on slower Fed hikes.

• EM stocks and bonds are roaring back as November clocked the best month for emerging-market debt in over 24 years.

• Stocks remained directionless after some confusing signals across markets. 🤷

Story Roundup

1 - Blackstone limits investor withdrawals. Blackstone. 💀

One of the most prolific real estate investors might be in a hot spot.

Blackstone has been looked up at for their insane private equity arm, and even more so for their commercial real estate fund.

But they just limited investor withdrawals.

Blackstone honored just 43% of all redemption requests from investors, showing the risks that rich folks have taken in handing them a stack of cash.

Stock is down about 8%, and it looks like more withdrawal halts are to come.

Ain't looking pretty.

2 - US inflation data shows that prices may have peaked. 🥳

The Feds favorite metric is showing that inflation is slowing.

The personal consumption expenditure index rose by 0.2% last month, below expectations of 0.3%, and well below September's 0.5%.

This is perfect news for markets - coming in right after JPow's decision to tap the brakes on rate hikes.

The Fed has warned against prematurely loosening things up, and it's important to note that rates will still go up. Just at a slower pace.

No reason to celebrate, sadly. Never forget your discount rates. 🤫

3 - Credit Suisse outflows seem to have taken a U-turn. 🔁

He who controls social media, controls the world.

And a social media storm is precisely what gripped Credit Suisse last month. Just three weeks back, LinkedIn feeds were filled with lengthy debates over CS's future.

Cut to today, and it looks like things might be alright.

Clients have started returning to the bank and leverage is being slowly trimmed. The net outflows they saw have apparently reversed, and rumours have been vanquished.

All is good. For now. 🤔

4 - IMF places lofty bet on GCC's growth. 🚀

The IMF has put the Arab world on an oil-fueled rocket ship.

Surging commodity prices have been the perfect cement for any cracks in Gulf economies, and overall fiscal surpluses are predicted to climb to $100bn+.

They reckon that the GCC will grow their economies by about 6.5% this year, a pretty stunning figure when you consider that "all hell is breaking loose".

The Arabian Dream. 🐪

5 - SoftBank drops a crumb of Policybazaar stock. 😋

Japan's golden child SoftBank is selling 5% of their stake in Policybazaar - a deal that's gonna give them some much-needed liquidity and earn them about $130 million.

Policybazaar has taken a beating this year as all sorts of macro headwinds grab it's top line by the horns, but they've managed to come out on top.

SoftBank will end up halving their total Policybazaar holding, making out with a 30% return on this investment.

At least one of SoftBank's bets turned out rosy. 🤣

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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