MARKET MOVERS

  • GM buys self-driving-car stake from SoftBank. GM said it purchased a stake in its Cruise Automation self-driving car unit from SoftBank. GM will pay $2.1 billion for the stake. GM also committed to putting another $1.35 billion into the company. GM now owns about 80% of Cruise. Other minority holders include Honda Motor (HMC) and Walmart (WMT).

  • Activist investors take aim at cloud software aftermarket swoon. Activist investors have taken stakes in Everbridge and Anaplan, which are both parts of the struggling cloud index. According to regulatory filings, Corvex and Sachem Head bought Anaplan shares because they viewed them as undervalued and an attractive investment opportunity. Jonathan Soros also joined in the buying spree through JS Capital Management. Read more here.

  • Foreign investors dump Chinese stocks at a record pace. They have dumped a record $6 billion worth of Chinese shares in the first three months of 2022 as they take fright at new coronavirus outbreaks and the risk that western countries will sanction Beijing if it supports Russia’s war in Ukraine. Chinese shares took a heavy blow at the start of this week as Covid-19 cases surged in major cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen.

  • 7 out of 10 EVs sold in America today are Teslas. Tesla sells eight times more EVs than its closest EV competitor. What this really means is that the race to be No. 2 remains wide open. The runner-up in this race isn't either Lucid or Rivian. Instead, it's Nissan, with an 8.5% market share, followed closely by General Motors' Chevrolet brand at 7.2% and Ford at a distant fourth with just 2.3% of electric cars sold.

  • Avalanche launched borrowing and trading capabilities of Terra's UST stablecoin on the Avalanche network. Reports indicate that users are now able to both deposit and earn a yield on UST using Avalanche and engage in borrowing for UST tokens as well. Avalanche surged 13.3% higher over the past 24 hours after the announcement. Read more here.

  • Construction ramps up for apartments. Activity in the multifamily sector, which includes apartment buildings and condos, rose by 9.3% to an annualized pace of 554,000 units. Economists expect the multifamily sector to continue to show strength over the coming months. Builders continue to start homes as the demand for new construction remains solid in a market lacking inventory of previously owned homes.

  • Bored Ape maker Yuga Labs has launched $APE coin. The token will denominate the tokenomics of Yuga Labs, multi-collection metaverse, and support initiatives related to culture gaming and commerce. 62% of the total supply of a coin is earmarked for the community with the rest going to the team. Each Bored Ape holder got 10,000 token airdrops. Source(25:09)

WHAT TO WATCH

  • Google re-enters the AR glasses race. The company acquired Micro LED startup Raxium for $1 billion. Raxium designs and manufactures pixels for LED displays. Jason Calacanis thinks that it's the perfect time for Google to re-enter. They have all the intelligence, network effects, and their existing database. Google has the potential to be a player in this race. Source(7:30)

  • We're headed for a serious recession, says David Sacks. If the war continues and we don't get spring planning for agriculture and then things keep deteriorating, we'll go from the slow down of the economy to a possible recession. If there is no peace deal, we can almost expect Russia to escalate the war which will put more pressure globally. Source(56:40)

  • Binance to add PancakeSwap in-app. Under the terms of their arrangement, PancakeSwap's DeFi platform will be accessible via Binance's popular mobile app. In the token's official blog published on Medium.com, its developers said that they are "gradually" adding PancakeSwap features through the Mini Program. No specifics were provided, nor was any time frame.

  • Porsche and Apple Inc. plan joint projects. The two companies have held early discussions about potential joint projects, the sports-car maker’s chief executive said Friday. Porsche boss Oliver Blume's latest revelation could rekindle long-standing speculation about a possible Apple foray into the auto sector. Executives from Porsche traveled to the U.S. late last year for meetings with Apple and other tech companies.  Read more here.

  • Robot truckers could replace 500K U.S. jobs. Such a system, according to a new study out of the University of Michigan, could replace about 90% of human driving in U.S. long-haul trucking, the equivalent of roughly 500,000 jobs. If they deployed the robots nationwide, but in warmer months only, half of the country’s trucking hours could go autonomous.


  • IEA calls for driving restrictions and air travel curbs to reduce oil demand. The energy agency warns 2.5mn barrels a day of Russian oil exports could cease from next month. The IEA has proposed 10 measures to reduce oil demand by 2.7m b/d within the next four months, which it said would help balance potential loss from the Russian market. Read more here.

  • The near-term trend is in de-globalization. We're evolving the global economy and planet earth away from this model of centralized industrial manufacturing, into a production system that looks more distributed and decentralized with better technology. Source(43:23)
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