Silver banana goes to…

Your Daily Dose of Market & Career Clarity

📬 Delivered to 150,000+ ambitious readers

🎯 In this issue:

• Banana Bits: Finance headlines that actually matter

• Market Summary: Bond Traders Fully Price-in September Rate Cut 

• What’s Ripe / Rotten: The tastiest and most disgusting stocks 

• Technical Trip: Interview Q&A from Goldman Sachs

• Deal Dispatch: M&A, IPOs, and other transactions 

Market Snapshot

📉 Banana Bits

• Anutin Charnvirakul took office as Thailand’s new prime minister after the King’s endorsement.

• China’s Central Bank continued its 10-month streak of gold buying.

• Trump confirms finalists for Fed Chair: Hassett, Waller, and Warsh.

• Approval for Trump’s work dropped from 45% to 43% amid trade and inflation worries.

• Traders brush off inflation risk as they bet on a sealed September rate cut.

• Emerging markets are rushing to raise debt to seize investors’ appetite.

• Junk bonds are the new high-grade bonds.

• Trump exempts Gold, Tungsten, and Uranium from global tariffs.

• Nonfarm payrolls increased by just 22,000 vs 75,000, and unemployment increased to 4.3%.

• Robinhood, AppLovin, and Emcor to join the S&P 500 in rebalancing.

Market Recap

Baiting the Bear Hunters 

This week’s market seems to be a precursor for a downturn. We got weaker job reports on Friday, 22,000 vs 75,000 expected, and unemployment came in at 4.3%. 

Moreover, estimates of the minimal monthly payroll gain needed to hold the unemployment rate steady are down a lot, perhaps below 50,000. 

After Friday’s report, there was a rally in treasuries and a downside reversal in banks and consumer cyclical stocks—a sign that rate cuts might not happen in a resilient economy, as banks and consumer stocks would be the first to be affected in a downside economy. 

On the equity markets, we have also seen some slowdown from the 2024 darlings. 

• Nvidia, the most valued stock and the principal driver of this bull market, has fallen 8% and is now below its 50-day moving average. 

• Likewise, B*tcoin is also down 10% from its peak. 

• Newly IPO companies are also getting a beat. Figma, Circle, CoreWeave, Chime Financial, and Bullish are 40-60% below their post-pop break.  

So is the bull market ending? Recent data might suggest a pullback, but not completely wiping out a bull market narrative. 

Even with this week’s data, the S&P 500 is still up 10% and investors are rotating from 2024 darlings to laggards instead of selling the market. This week, it was Broadcom, Alphabet, and Apple over Nvidia and Microsoft. Over the past two years, Broadcom’s stock appreciation has now outpaced Nvidia’s 283% to 244%. 

What's Ripe

Guidewire Software Inc. (GWRE) 20.2%

• GWRE soared 20% after it reported fiscal fourth quarter revenue of $356.6 million vs analysts’ estimate of $337.8 million.

• EPS also came in higher than analysts’ estimate, $0.84 vs $0.64.

• Fiscal 2026 revenue of $1.39-$1.41 billion blew past Wall Street forecasts of $1.36 billion.  

Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) 9.4%

• Shares of Broadcom rose 9.4% in Friday trading after fiscal third quarter revenue came in at $15.95 vs $15.8 billion and EPS of  $1.69 vs $1.66. 

• Likewise, management also provided solid guidance with $17.4 billion in revenue vs the analyst estimate of $17.02 billion.

What's Rotten

Kenvue Inc. (KVUE) 9.4%

• KVUE slumped 9.3% after Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to draw a link between autism and the use of the pain medication in pregnant women in a report later this month.

Copart Inc. (CPRT) 2.8%

• Copart posted fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that rose from a year earlier as revenue gained 5.2% to $1.13 billion.

• CPRT is down 2.8% as revenue missed the forecast of $1.14 billion.

🧠 Technical Trip

Q&A Interview with Goldman Sachs

🦈Deal News

M&A, IPOs, And Other Notable Transactions

• IPOs are back after Klarna and Gemina highlight a busy week ahead.

• Loveholidays’ Owner is said to choose banks for the London IPO.

• EToro co-founder says it has cash to target more ambitious M&A.

• Meta secured a $26 billion debt to construct a new data center.

• Brazil’s $2.6 billion meat takeover gets antitrust approval.

• BBVA clears last hurdle to open $17.4 billion bid to Sabadell shareholders.

• Adnoc is said to mull $10 billion plus financing for the Santos deal.

• Tesla offers Elon Musk an unprecedented $1 trillion pay package.

• Fintech Klarna got a bank status after acquiring digital bank Bineo.

📊The Daily Poll

Previous Poll:

Trump asking SCOTUS to fire the FTC Commissioner is…

Power move: 18.8% // Overreach: 54.2% // Political stunt: 18.8% // Just noise: 8.2%

Student Success Corner

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Banana Brain Teaser

Previous

A certain country had a total annual expenditure of $1.2 × (10)^ 12 last year. If the population of the country was 240 million last year, what was the per capita expenditure?

Answer: 5,000

Today

In a small snack shop, the average revenue was $400 per day over a 10-day period. During this period, if the average daily revenue was $360 for the first 6 days, what was the average daily revenue for 4 days?

How Would You Rate Today's Peel?

Happy Investing,
Chris, Vyom, Ankit, Colin, Mitchell, & Patrick

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