Happy Saturday, Munchers! 🙏

I assume that the Friday partying went well, if you're reading this in the morning. Hope all is well and that you have a sensational weekend. I know I need one. 😤

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, Google threw the chequebook around like it's 2021, BMW moved their battery plants to Mexico, and Europe slapped price caps on Russian oil. 🔥

Let’s dive in.

What’s hot, what’s not?

Market Commentary

• The US economy generated more than half a million jobs last month. That is a bumper number. It also brings unemployment to it's lowest level in decades. Quite some hefty moves there.

• Britain's biggest index (the FTSE 100) hit an all-time high yesterday. Yeah, you're reading that right. In the past, the UK index has been dismissed for refusing to include the high-growth tech darlings and rather focusing on banks, insurers, and mining groups. Looks like those vices are turning into virtues. 😉

• Nigeria tried replacing their currency notes. That turned into chaos pretty quick, with long queues forming outside cash machines and customers getting into fights over ATM access.

Story Roundup

1 - Google splashes $300 million into an AI startup. 🤖

Nature is healing. 

Those blockbuster million dollar deals are coming back to markets.

Google just invested $300mn into an AI startup called Anthropic at a $3 billion valuation. 

This is probably the first time anyone is hearing of them. Anthropic was formed in 2021 when a group of researchers left OpenAI after getting into a fight about the company's direction. 

They vowed to do it bigger and better - so they handed their resignations in and got to work.

Till date, they've built an AI model called Claude, which is like GPT but more bonkers. Claude is unavailable to the public, which is probably why Google has paid $300mn for it. 

But the main reason Google has bought them out is because Anthropic will be providing Google with computing resources. 

You know who made that exact cash-for-computing deal? 

Microsoft with OpenAI. 

Interesting times. 🤔

2 - BMW takes a flight to Mexico. 🏭

BMW's been given some bumper subsidies, and they're using them on a one-way trip to Mexico. 

Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act - which put aside $370bn toward stabilizing America's EV supply chain. 

BMW gets a cool $500mn to build an assembly center in Mexico and hire 1,000 folks. 

There are two big trends pushing this - an attempt to cash in on the green energy transition, and a further decoupling away from China. 

Electrifying. ⚡

3 - Europe slaps price caps on Russian oil products. 🛢️

EU members are getting sick and tired of high oil prices - and they're trying to limit them. 

They've agreed on a $100 a barrel price cap on diesel and $45 a barrel cap on fuel oil. 

This affects shipping companies carrying Russian oil products, since they will only get Western insurance and financing if they pay below those price caps. 

It's another attempt to squeeze Russia's revenues and to end their cash flow on the Ukraine war fronts.

Papa Putin won't love this.

4 - Fitch thinks that nothing's wrong with Adani. 🤷

Welcome to your daily dose of Adani, since it's impossible to be online for 5 minutes without reading about him.

Fitch Ratings (one of the biggest ratings agencies in the world) said that they expect no changes to the company's ability to repay debt.

The "short seller report" apparently poses "no risk to Adani's cash flow".

But then again, ratings agencies never lie to us, right? 😏

5 - Ford comes to F1 and dumps dough into EVs. ⚡

After a 20-year hiatus, Ford is coming back to the fastest sport in the world. 

In 2026, F1 is gonna change to add sustainable fuels and electric components. 

Ford is splashing $50 billion into their EV business, and they are betting that this F1 appearance is gonna let them showcase their tech. 

Their electric cars aren't selling as well as they used to - with the group slumping to a $2bn loss last year and a forced shutdown of their self driving business.

The number of eyeballs on F1 has skyrocketed in recent years - so we race for both money and marketing. 

Boom. 💥

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