Market Munch 🍎| 31 July 2022
Meta gets slapped with a federal lawsuit, Crypto bros get back on their yachts, and Evergrande misses a restructuring deadline.
Happy weekend, Munchers!
Here is your daily dose of the news that matters, from Wall Street to Dalal Street - in 5 minutes and 14 seconds.
Let’s dive in.
What’s hot, what’s not
Story Roundup
1 - Crypto bros flex their muscles over renewed confidence. 💪
A lot of things have gone wrong in the Wild West of crypto of late.
A $26bn hedge fund went belly up, a stablecoin evaporated along with $40bn of investor money, and some of crypto’s biggest lenders refused to return clients their money.
But some people out there look confident.
The total market cap of crypto has risen about 30% or $260bn in the last month - showing tentative signs of recovery.
Some salvation is in sight for crypto bros.
2 - Regulators sue Meta over a VR expansion.🥸
Last year Meta filed to purchase a virtual reality startup called Within.
The move’s main motive was to make more headway in the metaverse - a business segment that lost them about $10bn last year.
Long story short, the FTC sued them for it.
They are alleging that the deal will give Facebook an unfair advantage in the VR market - where they’re already outpacing the rest of big tech.
Antitrust cases have historically focused on already established markets - but the FTC has made it clear that they want to police the industries of the future too.
Lawsuit is here if anyone wants to have a flick.
3 - Are Samsung’s technological advantages falling apart?
Samsung prided themself on one thing - devices that are on par with the best-of-the-best, at a lower price tag.
In the last few months however, analysts, employees, and economists alike have warned that Samsung’s technological edge may be fading.
Their share of the smartphone processor market has almost halved since 2019, falling behind to just 4th in the world.
A lot of investors have criticised the company’s culture - blaming them for putting cost-cutting and growth over quality and innovation.
They also came in below expectations for operating profit as inflation and rising rates battered consumer demand.
Interesting times.
4 - World’s largest debtor misses deadline for a $300bn restructuring plan. 🏠
China Evergrande - the largest real estate company in China and also the most indebted company in the world - has failed to meet a deadline to restructure their liabilities.
Last year, Evergrande was all over the newsroom as the biggest default in a real estate sector-wide liquidity crisis in China.
In January this year, they said that they would be publishing a restructuring proposal for this debt by the end of July.
Well, July’s over, and no proposal is in sight.
They’re urging patience to their creditors over threats of legal action.
Time will tell where this one goes.
Tick tock. ⌚
5 - Alibaba plummeted 11% over potential delisting.📉
Alibaba is one of 250+ Chinese companies that might be delisted from US exchanges over their auditing compliance.
US regulators have been asking for access to audit papers of America-listed Chinese companies, which are stored in China.
They’ve now planned to have a primary listing in Hong Kong - which shows some shift in sentiment.
Applying for this listing doesn’t necessarily mean that they will get delisted in the US - it’s just a Plan B.
Aaaand that’s a wrap.
Happy weekend guys.
Thanks a ton for reading. Hope you enjoyed it. Any feedback is open - positive or negative. Hit my line at aryaansh.rathore@gmail.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/aryaansh/.