Happy Friday, Munchers! 🙏

We’re officially 1/6th through the year, and I’m not bankrupt (yet), so we’ll take that as a massive W.

Hope you have a banging weekend, and that the partying today is a whole lotta fun. 🤩

As always, here is your daily dose of the news that matters, from Wall Street to Dalal Street - in 4 minutes and 59 seconds.

Yesterday, Blackstone defaulted on a $600mn bond, Binance got hammered by withdrawals, and Adani snagged 2 billy from American investors. 🔥

Let’s dive in.

What’s hot, what’s not?

Market Commentary

• Eurozone inflation dipped very slightly to settle at 8.5%. That’s a pretty large number, and it’s above what Wall Street had in mind. Stubborn inflation means that interest rates go higher for longer. Good luck, homeowners. 💀

• US Treasury yields also climbed to new heights - the 10-year breached 4% and the 2-year almost touched 5%. Those rates haven’t been seen in a decade.

• Investors remain unimpressed with tech giants, and all major stock indices seem to be approaching some sort of hurdle.

Story Roundup

1 - Blackstone keeps their cash close. If they have any. 🫂

Here are a few words you do NOT want to see next o each other.

Pineapple and pizza. Ketchup and noodles. Blackstone and default.

Blackstone is one of the world’s most prolific private equity firms, and rising rates are hammering their portfolio.

They just defaulted on a $562 million+ bond payment, and the aftershocks could be big.

This bond is backed by a portfolio of Finland-based offices and shops, which have been in even more of a pickle given Europe’s state.

Blackstone has been trying to get this property off their hands for a while now, and it looks like they went the ugly way.

Boom. 💥

2 - Binance’s crypto gets dealt a big blow. 👊🏽

Last month, American regulators halted the issuance of new Binance coins.

They said it was because of “several unresolved issues” - which sounds pretty vague.

Investors with big money do NOT like their money being caught up over vague reasons, so they decided to rush for the exit door.

Almost $6bn of funds have been withdrawn from Binance’s token as a direct result from this.

Outflows this big will graze Binance’s bottom line, since a lot of their business relies on this token.

Just another day in the Wild, Wild West of crypto. 🪙

3 - Adani scoops up a ton of money. 💥

While half the world screams about Adani going under, some of the big money is still happy with what’s going on.

GQG Partners - a US-based investment company has ploughed almost $2 billion into Adani companies.

GQG was founded by a guy named Rajiv Jain (hint: the Gujju connection) and they manage around $92bn.

Adani baba has been hunting for a credible investors to win others over, and GQG seems like a good bet.

Big leagues. 🏏

4 - Stripe goes around, hat in hand. 💸

Looks like the party days are over, and the cash-strapped days are back!

Stripe is going fundraising, and they're heading for a down round.

A down round is when you raise money at a lower valuation than previously.

In their case, it's a move of $95 billion -> $55 billion. That's a 40% haircut.

They're not gonna use this money for day-to-day expenses, but instead to cover a suspiciously large tax bill on employee stock.

The only salvation?

Stripe won't be the only ones. The entire fintech + web3 world has seen industry giants slash valuations to get the cash pumping.

Tough times.

5 - Insulin gets cheaper for all. 💉

About 37 million Americans have diabetes (yeah, I know).

These 37 million rack up tons in revenue for the big companies that control the insulin market.

But there’s some relief in store.

Eli Lilly (one of the biggest insulin makers) is lowering the price of its best-selling insulin drugs.

Big Pharma charges as much as $200/dose even though making costs fall under 10 bucks.

Last year, Eli Lilly made over $3 billion selling insulin.

If Eli Lilly’s market share soars thanks to its price cuts, rivals may follow suit to keep customers.

Sweet stuff. 🍬

Hope you enjoyed this issue of Market Munch. If you’ve got any feedback - good or bad (😏) you can hit reply to this email and I'll get a ping in my inbox. Thanks a ton for reading!

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Cheers, and have a lovely day. 🙏

- Aryaansh ⚡