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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.

After a wild week, which saw sharp losses, a bounce back and more losses, Dow Jones was down 0.2%, S&P 500 rose 1.4%, and Nasdaq was up 4.4%. The 10-year Treasury saw huge daily swings as well, and the two-year yield fell ~75 basis points to 3.85%, in its biggest weekly drop since 1987. Bitcoin notched a 9-month high after inflation data bolsters speculation of smaller rate hike. Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company filed for bankruptcy after worry spread among its long-established customer base of tech startups, prompting regulators to seize the firm’s banking unit. Hedge fund Tiger Global marked down the value of its venture capital funds in 2022 by 33%, or US$23 billion. China’s robotaxi upstart WeRide confidentially filed for an IPO. Amazon and Rivian are considering ending their exclusivity agreement. Google unveils new AI tools for Cloud, Workspace. Microsoft announced Copilot: the AI-powered future of Office documents. OpenAI on Tuesday began selling access to GPT-4, the newest version of its machine-learning model. Baidu debuted China’s answer to ChatGPT via a recorded video, disappointing investors. Meta will cut another 10,000 jobs and cancel ‘low priority projects’. Amazon plans to offer first satellite internet service next year. YouTube TV is raising its prices by US$8 per month, citing in part rising content costs. Tesla relaunches Powerwall sales. In Canada, Last week’s sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) could choke funding for Canada’s technology start-ups and place them in the hands of domestic lenders who may be more selective in financing new ventures. Sophic Client Swarmio received an interest-free loan of $1 million from a strategic shareholder. Sophic client UGE achieves a Notice to Proceed Milestone for 2.7MW community solar project in Maryland.

Last week, the market suffered big losses last week as SVB Financial collapsed, which along with crypto bank Silvergate Financial sparked intense losses for bank stocks. Dow Jones lost 4.4%, S&P 500 fell 4.55%, and Nasdaq lost 4.7%. Silicon Valley Bank failed on Friday morning, as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp took control of the bank, deepening uncertainty for startups and venture capital firms that rely on the bank for financial services. Several public companies disclosed they had money on deposit at failed Silicon Valley Bank, including Roku and Roblox, a sign of how widespread SVB’s tentacles reached. Stripe’s fundraise to reach US$6 billion, at a US$50 billion valuation, as the company faces a US$3.5 billion tax on employees’ shares expiration. Chinese online fashion retailer SHEIN is set to raise around US$2 billion in a new funding round this month and is aiming for a U.S. listing in the second half of this year. Uber is considering spinning off freight logistics division. Meta plans new layoffs that could match last year’s in scope. Microsoft Bing hits 100 million active users in bid to grab share from Google. In Canada, Toronto-based startup Cohere is among the first four companies to receive funding from Salesforce Ventures’ newly-launched US$250 million fund. As the battle to stop Magnet Forensics’ $1.8 billion sale rages on, an independent advisor has recommended shareholders vote for the deal. The Waterloo startup released a statement on Wednesday noting that Egan-Jones Proxy Services has recommended it gets approved. Sophic Client UGE announces placement of up to US$3 million of project development green bonds. Sophic Client Kraken Robotics received nearly $3 million in orders for its Synthetic Aperture Sonar for NATO and US defence customers. Sophic Client LuckBox announces triple digit growth across core KPI’s, as Global betting handle in February reached a record $2.8 million, as the player base now stands at 350,000.

Last week, the stock market performed better in the latter half, as S&P 500 and Nasdaq rebounded from key tests Thursday morning, and went on to top resistance on Friday. Dow Jones ened the week up 1.75%, S&P 500 was up 1.9%, and Nasdaq was up 2.6%, 10-year US Treasury yield rose to 3.96%, after falling by 11 basis points Friday. Chip designer Arm intends to list in New York. Instacart’s revenue and profit climbed ahead of a potential public listing. Twitter’s revenue, adjusted earnings fell about 40% in month of December. Tesla wants to grow car sales from 1.3 million in 2022 to 20 million. Fisker shares rocketed up 30% as the EV maker sees potential for profit and strikes a ‘game changer’ deal for charging stations. Salesforce shares jumped 15% despite a weak revenue forecast. Meta unveiled a new large language model that can run on a single GPU, the Company also plans four new AR/VR devices in next four years. Elon Musk’s bid to implant brain chip into humans was reportedly rejected by the feds over safety risks. U.S. House panel approved a bill giving Biden power to ban TikTok. Amazon is letting employees use their stock to finance home purchases and even second homes. Visa and Mastercard are reportedly pressing pause on new crypto partnerships in the wake of stunning industry collapses. In Canada, CGI announced its intent to repurchase 3.34 million of its shares held by CDPQ. Northleaf Capital Partners has held the final close of its latest private equity fund, pulling in US$675 million. Shopify built Indigo’s new website in three days following ransomware attack. Canada is removing TikTok from government-issued devices. Sophic Client UGE achieves notice to proceed milestone for rooftop community solar project in Queens, New York. Sophic Client LuckBox’s CEO, Thomas Rosander did a short interview on innovation in esports betting.