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 50 seconds.

That's less time than it takes for the government to raise an eyebrow on oil companies' profits, Reliance to make a heavy dent in the retail space, and crypto miners to teeter on the edge. 🔥

Let’s dive in.

What’s hot, what’s not?

Market Commentary

• Markets continued with their bounce as traders found no reason to be pessimistic.

• COP27 is raging on with a lot of fierce debate on who should pay the price for pollution.

• A French study found that no companies are making money off inflation in the food sector. 🤔

Story Roundup

1 - American oil producers get in the government's crosshairs. 🎯

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, American oil producers have made over $200bn in profit.

They've cashed in on a period of global turmoil, since surging energy prices aren't making life easier for anyone.

The last 6 months have beene the most profitable on record, and this doesn't go unnoticed.

Folks in the government have targeted their tax targets on these oil companies.

President Joe Biden called these earnings "a windfall of war" and accused oil companies of "profiteering from invasion".

He then said that he would get Congress to vote on higher oil taxes unless these businesses spend more money to reduce the cost to the consumer. 

Man. 💀

2 - UBS and Julius Baer talk to rich folks in the metaverse. 🤦

The headline says it all. 

Over the weekend, UBS and Julius Baer tried talking to billionaire clients using VR headsets.

It was cool for the first few minutes, but then opened up a whole pool of problems.

A few clients had concerns with motion sickness and data security - since the platforms that we have are pretty prehistoric.

One client said that it looks like "Atari graphics".

Not a good look. 🥽

3 - Reliance splashes a ton of cash to push into retail. 🛒

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance has been on a retail ripper in India. 

They are set to buy German retailer Metro Cash and Carry's India business for a pretty hefty EUR 500 million.

That price tag is pretty big - especially for the Indian market.

But Reliance is gonna get bang for their buck, with Metro's 31 distribution centers, land banks, warehouses, and a few other assets.

This deal is gonna supercharge Reliance's retail ambitions - a focus that they highlighted earlier this year. 

Ambani and co. want to make quality, cheap, and 'cool' products affordable to the average Indian.

And they mean business. 💸

4 - Crypto miners take a big battering as the world cools down. 🥶

This year's digital asset drought has meant that a lot of crypto mining companies are going thirsty. 

Nasdaq-listed Core Scientific warned that it could file for bankruptcy soon, and London-listed Argo Blockchain said that their "outlook is gloomy".

Last month, America's Computer North actually went bankrupt - owing over $500m to all sorts of lenders and blaming poor market conditions.

Everyone is now questioning the sustainability of spending gargantuan amounts of electricity to get stuff that's worth a fraction of the cost.

The crypto winter's chain reaction continues. 🪙

5 - European inflation remains red-hot. 🥵

More than half of the 19 Eurozone countries are witnessing double-digit inflation.

Averaged out, they're sitting on a 10.7% inflation rate. That's a new all-time high.

The European Central Bank knows this - and they're hiking interest rates at a record pace to try and get life back to normal. 

But the problem is that growth seems to be grinding to a halt.

A post-lockdown boom in Spain and France is receding, consumer spending is rapidly drying up, and PMI numbers across the continent are printing lower.

Europe is currently sipping on a deadly cocktail of stubborn inflation, paired with a side of slowing growth.

Add in a much tighter economy - and you can quickly see why a recession is on the cards. 

Red-hot. 🔥

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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