AnalytixInsight

The sideways chop in the markets continued last week, Dow Jones lost 0.2%, S&P 500 fell 0.1%, Nasdaq composite was down 0.4%. Market breadth remains poor, and most investors we speak with remain on the sidelines as they expect that in the near term, either breadth will increase, or indexes will pull back and remain range bound. Event ticketing company SeatGeek filed confidentially to go public. Silver Lake will acquire Germany’s Software AG for €30 a share (50% premium to Friday’s close). Lululemon is exploring a sale of Mirror fitness unit it bought in 2020. Meta begins its next round of layoffs. Lyft is planning a round of layoffs. AI is coming soon to Google Search with ‘Magi’ as Samsung considers making Bing the default search engine on its devices. Google’s big AI push will combine Brain and DeepMind into one team. Elon Musk is planning an artificial intelligence start-up to rival OpenAI. SpaceX’s 400-foot Starship rocket exploded during its inaugural launch. Apple launches high-interest savings accounts with Goldman. Kroger is now rolling out Apple Pay support to stores across the United States. TSMC seeks up to US$15 billion from U.S. for chip plants but objects to conditions. The US Energy department commits US$3 billion to expand rooftop solar access. Under the deal, Sunnova will devote a portion of the lending to homeowners with below-average credit scores and to Puerto Rico. In Canada, last week saw some interesting VC funding announcements. Miovision purchased fellow traffic management company Global Traffic Technologies (GTT) in a deal valued at US$107 million. The acquisition is backed by a recent $260 million investment from various investors. Sophic Client Kraken Robotics, announced orders totaling $7 million. Sixteen projects under Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC) will see $52 million in funding flow towards them, including Kraken Robotics. Sophic Client Legend Power’s next generation SmartGATE more than doubled the product’s previous generation’s financial benefit across initial 30 installations.

The stock market was mixed last week, Dow Jones rose 0.6%, S&P 500 fell 0.1%, and Nasdaq fell 1.1%, even as the 10-year US Treasury yield tumbled 22 basis points to 3.28%, a seven-month low. Global startups raised US$76 billion in the first quarter—a figure that includes US$10 billion raised by OpenAI and US$6.5 billion raised by Stripe—a steep decline from the same period last year. Instacart boosted its valuation 18%, mirroring stock market bounce. Marketing software company Klaviyo has hired bankers and is targeting a public debut as early as this fal. C3.ai plunged 26% after a short-seller said the buzzy AI company has ‘serious accounting and disclosure issues’. The world’s largest AI fund, the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF to a stronger start in 2023 than even the red-hot Nasdaq 100. Google’s CEO said Chatbot feature is coming to search. Ahead of Apple’s US$3k headset, only 4% of teens who own a VR device actually use it. Walmart is building a nationwide electric vehicle fast charging network. Tesla’s cut prices in the US yet again, this time by as much as US$5,000. In Canada, Vancouver-based Web3 startup LayerZero Labs is now valued at $3 billion after closing a $120 million Series B funding round. WonderFi, Coinsquare, and CoinSmart will merge as Canada’s crypto industry consolidates. Sophic Client, Jasper Commerce closed a second and final tranche of a Convertible Debenture unit financing, raising a total of $900,000 from insiders and a new institutional investor. Sophic Client UGE reported fiscal year 2022 financial results, and on the earnings call, highlighted positive expected balance sheet milestones. Sophic Client LuckBox announced strong March KPIs & record Q1, as March Global Betting Handle was $5.0 million, up from February’s record $2.8 million, and the registered player base reached 387,000. Sophic Client Swarmio Media, introduced a new payment solution, to drive accretive revenue growth. The company and etisalat by e& (largest telecom operator in the MENA region) also launched a promotional campaign for gamers in the Arena esports platform.

After a in uninspiring start, the markets made a bullish turn in the second half of the week. Dow Jones was up 3.2%, S&P 500 rose 3.5%, and Nasdaq was up 3.4%. Twitter was recently valued at US$20 billion in a new employee stock grant, even as Fidelity marked down its stake in Twitter by another 7.9%, bringing its total writedown on its stake since its acquisition to 63.5%. Disney cut its metaverse division as part of a broader restructuring. EA is laying off 6 percent of its workers. Alibaba stock jumped 10% as the Chinese tech giant begins its biggest reorganization ever and eyes new IPOs. Alphabet’s DeepMind and Google Brain set aside rivalry, and target OpenAI. Microsoft now claims GPT-4 shows ‘sparks’ of general intelligence. Bill Gates says self-driving cars will be as revolutionary as the PC after riding in one. Apple reportedly demoed mixed-reality headset to executives in the Steve Jobs Theater last week, even as mass production was reportedly pushed to Q3 2023. Netflix appears to be working to bring games to TVs with the iPhone as a controller. Meta Platforms will allow European users to opt out of personalized advertising on Facebook and Instagram after the European regulators in January fined Meta 390 million Euros for unlawfully forcing users to consent to personalized ads in its apps. Bitcoin has stormed to a 72% gain over the last three months and is on track for its strongest quarter in two years. The token has outperformed both the Nasdaq 100 and gold, which are up 15% and 9%, respectively, in the same stretch. In Canada, Sophic Clients, UGE and Jasper, both plan on closing second tranches of their previously announced financings in the coming weeks, with Jasper announcing an increase of the offering to $900,000 from $750,000. UGE’s Green Bonds’, which mature on June 30, 2027, and bear interest at a rate of 9% per annum, payable semi-annually, second tranche is expected to close by the end of April 2023.

Last week, major market indices posted good gains, despite a volatility during the week. Dow Jones was up 1.2%, S&P 500 rose 1.4%, and Nasdaq composite was up 1.7%. Consensus seems to be that the Fed’s rate hikes will pause in May, followed by rate cuts in July. Accenture announced it will cut 19,000 jobs (2.5% of its workforce), and Amazon will shed 9,000 more jobs, adding to the 18,000 employees Amazon had already cut starting in November. Block slides 15% after short-seller Hindenburg says its 2-year investigation indicates the company has ‘wildly overstated’ genuine user counts. Nvidia CEO says generative AI is an ‘iPhone Moment’. Apple to splash US$1 billion a year on films to break into cinemas. Netflix’s ad-supported tier is reportedly gathering momentum in the US, and the Company plans to release 40 more games this year. Microsoft is planning a mobile games app store to rival Apple and Google. Coinbase says it could get sued by the SEC, which has identified ‘potential violations of securities law’ at the exchange. Nasdaq to launch crypto custody service by end of June. Microsoft is building a cryptocurrency wallet into its Edge browser. In Canada, Magnet Forensics’ shareholders approved the $1.8 billion Thoma Bravo acquisition. Cormark launched research coverage on Sophic Client Kraken Robotics with a buy rating and $1 price target. Sophic Client UGE achieved a Notice to Proceed milestone for a 2.7MW Community Solar Project — With this project, UGE has reached NTP on 6.2MW of projects and commercial operation on 1.4MW of projects so far this year. Sophic Client LuckBox “to reveal new product in Q3”.as CEO Thomas Rosander recently took part in a Q&A session with Proactive Investors. From IPOs to busts: What went wrong for public esports companies — Sophic Capital, recently spoke with Esports.net, which provides news & guides for a growing Esports community.