AnalytixInsight

As 2022 fast draws to a close, and we write our final column for the year, the Dow Jones fell 2.8% last week, S&P 500 fell 3.4%, Nasdaq fell 4%. Market indices continue their now familiar trend of fading back bear market rallies. In light of this market volatility, it’s no surprise last week saw a few more terminated public listings – Stablecoin issuer Circle terminated a US$9 billion SPAC deal, India’s Snapdeal shelved a US$152 million IPO. “There is no appetite for tech stocks right now,” said a source close to the plans. That said many companies continue to execute, which we expect will be rewarded by the market. For example, Sophic Client Kraken Robotics (PNG-TSXV, KRKNF-OTC) was just awarded a $50+ million Navy contract by the Royal Canadian Navy. Kraken’s revenue for 2019, 2020, and 2021 was $15.1 million, $12.3 million, and $25.6 million respectively. Kraken’s current market cap is ~$108 million; these recent orders cumulatively represent nearly 2.5x Kraken’s high watermark 2021 revenue and over 60% of its market capitalization. Kraken also plays into the recent trend of defence tech, as Anduril raised a massive US$1.5 billion round at US$8.5 billion valuation (almost 2x its 2021 valuation). Anduril works with the U.S. and its allies to create drones, underwater vehicles and different operating and control systems. Sophic Clients Legend Power, UGE and OneSoft presented at the Planet MicroCap Showcase conference, replays can be found on our website. The FTC is suing to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision. Coinbase revenue will plunge at least 50% in 2022, CEO Armstrong says. Apple accelerates plans to move production out of China amid protests. Apple’s long-awaited AR/VR headset might be facing another round of software delays, as is its speculated self driving car launch. ChatGPT should worry Google and Alphabet, according to industry experts. Meta cannot run ads based on personal data, EU privacy watchdog rules. Amazon announces TikTok-like social feed of shoppable videos, photos.

The recent stock market rally could be at a turning point, following a strong week. While indexes’ gains were modest, they did find support, and broke key resistance. The Dow Jones was up 0.2%, S&P 500 gained 1.1%, and the Nasdaq was 2.1%. NYSE president says IPO proceeds fall more than 90%. “Our pipeline is tremendous — the reason companies aren’t coming to market is because all the volatility in the market,” said President Lynn Martin. Tech selloff catches up with private startups. People involved in the trades say they are seeing discounts from around 30% to 40% to as much as 80% off valuations from earlier fundraisings. Marvell stock falls after disappointing earnings and outlook, as CEO cites ‘inventory reductions’ by some customers. Shares of DraftKings Inc. jumped 2.3% in premarket trading Tuesday, after the online sports betting and fantasy sports company and Churchill Downs Inc. announced a multi-year agreement that will bring betting on horse racing to DraftKings. iPhone City lockdown ended; reportedly cost Apple US$1 billion/week. TSMC plans to make more advanced chips in US at urging of Apple. Airbnb wants to help renters list their apartments for short stays. Palantir Technologies Inc.’s raison d’etre is identifying patterns hidden within mountains of data. Yet somehow it didn’t spot the risks in its own investment strategy or the danger that startups might not be able to pay their bills. Google hit with multibillion-dollar class-action lawsuit over online ad dominance in the U.K. Cyber Monday online sales hit a record US$11.3 billion, driven by demand, not just inflation, says Adobe. Sophic Client UGE International announces closing of $7.379 million private placement of Green Bonds. Sophic Client LuckBox (LUCK-TSXV, LUKEF-OTC) signs LOI to acquire leading Asian-focused iGaming platform.

In the US holiday shortened week, the Dow Jones Industrial was up 1.7%, S&P 500 index climbed 1.5%, and the Nasdaq was up 0.8%. In the third quarter, Canada saw $896 million invested across 144 VC deals, according to the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association’s latest report. On both fronts, these numbers represent a steep year-over-year decline compared to what was an especially hot Q3 2021 and Q3 2019 for Canadian VC funding. WorkJam closed a US$50 million round. Shopify saw bigger Black Friday orders, and more in-store sales versus last year. Converge Technology announces commencement of strategic review process to maximize shareholder value. Coupa Software shares surged on a report of interest from Vista. Activision stock falls after report says watchdog will block Microsoft deal. Berkshire has cut it BYD stake by 22%, made US$1.2 billion profit. DraftKings stock falls after report cites cases of unauthorized account withdrawals. More than 20,000 employees at Apple Inc supplier Foxconn’s huge Chinese plant, mostly new hires not yet working on production lines, have left, a Foxconn source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. Google has a secret new project that is teaching artificial intelligence to write and fix code. Amazon plans to invest US$1 billion a year in movies for theaters. Bob Iger is returning to head Disney as Bob Chapek steps down. Thanksgiving 2022 online sales pip past forecasts at US$5.3 billion, up 2.8% on last year, mobile accounted for 55% of all purchases. Domino’s is rolling out over 800 Chevy Bolt pizza delivery EVs.

After the previous week’s gain, the Dow Jones was up very modestly last week, S&P fell 0.7%, and the Nasdaq was down 0.7%. Global venture funding plateaued in October, with valuations likely to blame. Masayoshi Son owes US$4.7 billion to SoftBank following tech rout. Ant’s consumer-lending unit to raise US$1.5 billion in scaled-down capital plan. BYD Co Ltd said on Tuesday it had scrapped plans to list its semiconductor unit in China, saying a move to increase investments in wafer production would significantly affect the unit’s asset structure. Shares of Alibaba inched about 1% higher in premarket action Thursday after the company topped adjusted earnings expectations for the latest quarter and said it was upsizing its buyback program. Taiwan Semi stock surges toward best day since 2008 after Buffett’s Berkshire reveals stake. Micron stock falls as chip maker cuts supply forecast, citing market conditions. Shares of Coinbase slipped 6% Thursday as the fallout from FTX’s collapse continues to hit the broader cryptocurrency market. Microsoft and Nvidia announced plans to work together to build a cloud-based supercomputer capable of training large-scale language models like OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, which translates text to images, and GPT-3, which can generate realistic-sounding news articles. Apple plans a 3D world and video service for its mixed-reality headset. Nike Inc. is opening an online store and trading platform for virtual sneakers as management pumps investment into the metaverse. Twitter may be in big trouble when it comes to generating advertising revenue: GroupM, part of WPP, the world’s biggest ad company — and Twitter’s biggest spender — is reportedly telling its clients that buying ads on the platform is “high-risk”. Epic says more than half of all announced next-gen games are made on Unreal Engine. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Wray told lawmakers during a hearing that the FBI has national security concerns about TikTok, the popular video app owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance. Democratic senators urge FTC to investigate Twitter.