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 53 seconds.

Yesterday, Goldman Sachs’ CEO got ready to give out some harsh truths, TikTok filled money in their creators’ accounts, and Adani’s great growth machine slowed down. 🔥

Let’s dive in.

What’s hot, what’s not?

Market Commentary

• Inflation and higher rates have got investors on tilt. Most markets across the world remained pretty shaky and traders kept the chop up.

• Fed notes are to be released later today and most people have a good eye trained on those. Could lay bare some hints as to where interest rates are headed.

• Crypto bros have taken some time to emerge from their dens as Bitcoin crossed the $25k mark for the first time in a long, long while.

Story Roundup

1 - Goldman Sachs’ CEO gets ready to say sorry. 🙏

DJing on the weekends and munching billion dollar deals down for breakfast is simply routine for Goldman’s CEO David Solomon.

But times have gotten rough, and the big money behind his company is looking for some answers.

A lot of large-ticket investors are seeking a pretty humble earnings from Goldman. Not in terms of their profit numbers, but in terms of the way they’ll move forward.

Goldman made a very pricey bet with consumer banking - they hoped to revolutionize the way that the little guy saves his bucks, but failed pretty badly.

Not to mention, lost billions while doing it.

Product didn’t catch on well, consumers found better alternatives, and entire business units started getting bloated.

So it’s natural that investors want to see more of the “traditional” Goldman.

Less jazzy and flashy stuff, and more of their money-makers. That means back to trading, investment banking, and dealmaking.

Looks lukewarm. 🥵

2 - TikTok splashes cash on it’s creator army. 💸

2022 dealt a hefty blow to the creator economy, but nature is healing and TikTokers have come out from their caves.

TikTok themself have decided to set up something called the Creativity Program - which is gonna be just like their $1 billion creator fund, with more perks.

Specifics haven’t been announced, but here is the kicker.

Creators who want to make money using this program need to create original videos that are longer than a minute.

That’s a big U-turn from TikTok’s original philosophy of quick “shots” of content that give you a small dopamine release.

The interesting thing in this whole stew, though?

It all becomes clear when you notice that YouTube began sharing ad revenue with YouTube Shorts makers.

TikTok doesn’t want it’s aggressive creator-led growth to stop, and they’re putting their money where their mouth is.

3 - Adani baba says no to a shopping spree. Again. 🛒

Cash crunch is hurting Adani, and it shows.

His company decided against bidding for a stake in government-owned electricity trader PTC.

This is very, very weird for Adani.

Historically, he buys companies same way us common men go to the supermarket to pick up milk and come back with 7 shopping bags full.

Adani baba built his empire on a debt-fuelled breakneck expansion. He bought, built, and developed everything he could lay his eyes on.

That’s why investors were okay with paying a 1000X PE multiple for his business.

But if Adani has to slow down with his spending, that means he’ll have to sacrifice his growth.

And that could be bad news. The same guys that shelled out billions at insane valuations might not be ready to do the same simply because its not worth it anymore.

Shocka. 🤨

4 - Meta mixes things up and borrows Elon’s playbook. 💰

Elon Musk is the oldest and richest 12 year old there is.

And he decided to make people pay $8 for a blue tick.

But Mark Zuckerberg got word of that plan, and he’s ready to ask for $15.

Meta just launched a service called Meta Verified where you can demand an all-powerful blue tick on your Insta and Facebook accounts for $15/month.

Subscription will also grant you increased visibility and reach, better protection against impersonation, and direct access to customer support.

But I think the story goes this way.

These big tech firms have realised that ad-revenue is drying up, and it’s drying up quick.

They need to pivot their business model fast, and do it without spooking their consumers.

Sign of the times!

5 - Kim J peppers the sky with missiles. 🚀

North Korea wants to “turn the Pacific into a firing range”.

Those words are in quotes because Kim Jong Un actually said that.

They fired an ICBM off their east coast yesterday and warned America about their increased presence in the region.

America and South Korea have been doing joint drills which Kim J isn’t loving so he decided to flex some muscles of his own.

The US has even thought about arming South Korea with nuclear missiles.

Oh, Uncle Sam. 🤦

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 ⚡