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Labor. Gaming. Digital Pens. ✍️

Labor. Gaming. Digital Pens. ✍️

All the cool kids want to work at Google 💼

autonomous
April 05, 2023

GM 🌞 and happy mid-week,

Money is moving around sentiment and geopolitics at the moment.

Oil, industrial production, banking, and interest rate changes by central banks are the factors pulling the strings on our economy (labor market) and financial markets. The early year optimism seems to be wearing off as well.

Focus 👁️ | Labor | Banks

The US economy’s demand for workers is beginning to show signs of weakness: The number of job openings fell by 632,000 in February, continuing a rapid decline that started in January.

That may be good news for inflation, but not for employees.
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Short sellers made $848M in paper profits on bets against First Republic in March

Fun Fact: The most shorted bank right now is the Canadian, TD Bank
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Signature Bank insiders sold $100M in stock during crypto surge
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Apple will cut corporate retail jobs in first known layoffs

Oof.

Trends ✨ | Saudi-Gaming | Google

Saudi Arabia is investing 38 bn in becoming the world’s next video-game hub.

There’s some disruptive action in the gaming world. Regulators are stomping out deals, Nintendo is launching theme parks and marquee games, and now the Saudis are getting in the mix. Will this punished sector recover some value? Stay tuned.
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16% of US college kids want to work for Google

We’ve got a couple of young Autonomous Googlers in the community
👋 hey guys!

Economy ⚙️ | Job Cuts, Round 2

GM buyouts cut 5k salaried jobs
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Walmart will cut over 2k jobs in e-commerce warehouses
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Big law Kirkland & Ellis cut associates in California/Texas offices

Law firms, Apple, Walmart, GM? It looks like the tough exterior of the US labor market is cracking. It was understandable to see layoffs in the interest-rate sensitive technology sector but seeing the economic pressure seep into other sectors is indicative of a slowing job market and monetary policy finally kicking in to fight inflation.

Macro | Big Picture 🌍

Iraq agreed to hold a 30% stake in energy company TotalEnergies’ $27B Iraq project, a deal that could attract foreign investment back into the country
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Mexico’s government agreed to buy 13 power generation plants from Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola in $6B deal
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French skincare firm L’Oreal agreed to buy luxury cosmetics brand Aesop at a $2.53B valuation

We’re liking European stock picking under current conditions. The Euro and Pound have rallied tremendously in recent months and luxury brands are weathering the economic slowdown.
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Investment management firm Rathbones agreed to buy the UK wealth management business of Investec in a $1.05B deal
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Germany may be skirting a recession by recording a small increase in output at the start of the year, according to the country’s top forecasters.

Digital Assets ⚡️

Ralph Lauren Debuts Crypto Pay in Florida
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Business are still warming up positively to blockchain payment and verification technologies. Are we moving into the actual adoption phase for blockchain-tech?