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 51 seconds.

Yesterday, Russia sent flames from the sky onto Ukrainian targets, COVID chaos set fire onto Foxconn's bottom line, and Europe scaled back hard on gas demand. 🔥

Let’s dive in.

What's hot, what's not?

Market Commentary

• Markets sharply sold off after some pretty discouraging news from Russia.

• Oil prices are also ticking up as Russian sanctions have kicked in.

• Strong business activity reports in the US means that the Fed might be pushing back in it's plans to loosen stuff up.

Story Roundup

1 - Russia rains firepower down on Ukraine. 💣

Real life isn't too different from a board game. If things start getting dire, you start playing dirty. 

And Russia's just tried to claw their loss back. 

Moscow fired a barrage of missiles toward civilian targets yet again, with the goal of upsetting electricity grids and disabling water networks.

Large swathes of Ukraine and almost half of neighboring Moldova have been entirely left without electricity. 

Winter is set to come down hard on Europe, so people need all the safety they can get. 

Russia knows where it hurts. And they're pressing down hard. 

Pretty sad state. 😔

2 - COVID chaos sends bottom lines up in smoke. 🔥

The world's biggest manufacturer is having some issues with COVID. 

As the rest of the world gets back to normal, Foxconn's factories are still under the lockdown sledgehammer. 

Riots and protests between workers and police have cost Foxconn over 1/3rd of their revenue. 

That's a massive number. 

Their main goal right now is to return to normalcy, but no one knows what that looks like.

There's a loooong road to walk. 🛣️

3 - Europe tries wriggling out of Russian reliance. ⛽

As winter comes down hard, Europe is finding themself in a pickle.

They don't want to be reliant on Russian gas, but they also don't want to freeze. 

Gas demand in the EU spiraled 24% month-on-month, a pretty staggering decrease.

It's even more puzzling when you factor in the sheer spike in demand that winter brings, since more gas is needed to keep the air warm and floors hot. 

Relief at the gas pump may be on the radar. 🙏

4 - $9 billion SPAC deal comes full Circle. ⭕

The ruins of crypto's golden bull run are still falling. 

Stablecoin owner Circle has ditched plans to go public in a deal valuing them at $9 billion, and it's all because interest rates have come knocking. 

Stablecoins are instrumental in bridging the gap between traditional markets and crypto markets, and Circle owns USD Coin - one of the biggest stablecoins. 

Tons of crypto companies have come under immense pressure this year, and Circle seems to be yet another.

Casualty central. 💀

5 - Asia's richest man makes a media foray. 📻

Gautam Adani is no stranger to the limelight. 

The world knows about his meteoric spike in wealth, and he's set to tighten his grip a little more. 

Adani is now the largest shareholder of NDTV - one of the most watched news channels in India. 

He owns about 40% of the company, and his empire wants to make some big moves in the media space. 

Centralisation. 🤷

A few nibbles from Pasiv 🍪

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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