Episode 91: Consumer sentiment fell sharply
The Dow lost about 140 points, or 0.4 percent, after opening above the 35,000 level. The S&P 500 dipped around 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq Composite shed about 0.3 percent. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are on track to close the week in the red, down roughly 0.5 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively. The Dow is little changed on the week. “The market looks broadly fairly valued to me, with most stocks priced to provide a market rate of return plus or minus a few percent,” Bill Miller, chairman, and chief investment officer of Miller Value Partners said in an investor letter.
U.S. consumer sentiment fell sharply and unexpectedly in early July to the lowest level in five months as inflation worries dented confidence in the economic recovery, a survey showed on Friday. The University of Michigan said its preliminary consumer sentiment index fell to 80.8 in the first half of this month - the lowest since February - from a final reading of 85.5 in June. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index would rise to 86.5.
The SEC accused Momentus of making misleading public statements about the results of its in-space tests and accused Stable Road of insufficient due diligence on both those tests and national security concerns involving former Momentus CEO Mikhail Kokorich (this morning the company added ex-Defense Department official John Rood as its new CEO). Momentus agreed to pay $7 million in penalties while Stable Road will pay $1 million, and PIPE investors will be given permission to terminate their subscription agreements prior to the deal's shareholder approval vote.
Wework founder and former CEO Adam Neuman nearly walked away from a multi-billion-dollar investment because of a request that he viewed as anti-Semitic. On a private flight back to America, Neumann told colleagues that SoftBank asked if he'd pledge not to give any of his own proceeds to the Israeli military, because it could be problematic for SoftBank's Middle Eastern investors. SoftBank denies that it made the request. "We're taking toxic money," Neumann reportedly said, threatening to walk. He didn't intend to give money to Israel's military but felt the request was anti-Semitic and also violated WeWork's corporate mantra of inclusiveness.
Market Close
Dow 30 34,687.85-299.17 (-0.86%)
S&P 500 4,327.16-32.87 (-0.75%)
Nasdaq 14,427.24-115.90 (-0.80%)
IPO
Couchbase, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based NoSQL database, set IPO terms to 7 million shares at $20-$23. It would have a $992 million fully diluted value, were it to price in the middle, and raised nearly $300 million from firms like Accel (20.9 percent pre-IPO stake), North Bridge (13.7 percent), GPI Capital (13 percent), Mayfield (10.1 percent) and Adams Street Partners (5.4 percent). http://axios.link/bGRv
A Fab IPO. Fabletics, the athletics brand backed by Kate Hudson, is exploring a potential IPO that would value the business around $5 billion. Hudson isn't a founder of the subscription-based brand but has been a partner and face of the brand for years. Wall Street Journal
LATAM
Marco Financial, a finance startup, raised $82M in funding with a $7M seed round and $75M in credit facility. The round was led by Arcadia Funds LLC and Kayyak Ventures. Marco Financial is a tech-enabled trade finance platform that provides reliable access to working capital for Latin American SMEs. The platform uses technology to provide better insights into who should receive loans.