Good Morning! Hope everyone’s gearing up for a great Fourth of July holiday. Jay Powell and the Fed are optimistic inflation is falling and could reach the targeted 2% next year. Six Flags merged with Cedar Fair to create a theme park giant. Meanwhile, FTC is blocking the $4B merger of mattress firms. Stocks are looking bullish as we start the second half of the year, hedge funds are getting too big to beat the markets, and it’s a buyers’ market in Manhattan. Plus the four types of work friends that can hurt your career.

We’ll be taking off tomorrow and will see you back on Friday. Have a wonderful holiday!

Looking for niche private market opportunities led by a Wall Street veteran with skin in the game? Check out today’s sponsor, 10 East.

_{SQUEEZ OF THE DAY}

Tesla’s Monster Week

One of the most controversial stocks on Wall Street, Tesla, is back, gaining almost 25% in the past week. And it’s all thanks to the electric vehicle maker reporting deliveries that, while still falling 4.8% year-over-year, beat Wall Street’s estimates. Tesla was up 10.2% on the news.

Tesla produced over 410k vehicles this past quarter, and delivered almost 444k. The reason Wall Street investors love following delivery numbers? They're the closest figure to sales that Tesla will end up reporting.

While Tesla's deliveries are down year-over-year, they're still up 14.8% from the last quarter. The company had been struggling with factory shutdowns and shipping delays, especially in the Europe/Red Sea areas.

Tesla has always been a controversial stock. Some investors struggle to justify the company's valuation, while others are wary of increased EV competition. And, of course, Elon Musk is a bit of an enigma. But it seems like Tesla's discounts and other incentives are working to grow sales.

Takeaway: It’s going to be a big quarter for Tesla. The company reports earnings later this month, and will unveil its robotaxi at an event in August. Tesla’s stock had been battered, losing almost 2/3rds of its peak November 2021 value. But, right now, Elon Musk has got to be celebrating that delivery figures weren’t as doom and gloom as some predicted. Time to bring out the flamethrowers and Tesla tequila!

_{PRESENTED BY 10 EAST}

Where Sophisticated Investors Access Private Markets

10 East, led by Michael Leffell, allows qualified individuals to invest alongside private market veterans in vetted deals across private credit, real estate, niche venture/private equity, and other one-off investments that aren’t typically available through traditional channels.   

Benefits of 10 East membership include:    

• Flexibility – members have full discretion over whether to invest on an offering-by-offering basis.   

• Alignment – principals commit material personal capital to every offering.    

• Institutional resources – a dedicated investment team that sources, monitors, and diligences each offering.   

10 East is where founders, executives, and portfolio managers from industry-leading firms diversify their personal portfolios.  

There are no upfront costs or minimum commitments associated with joining 10 East.

_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Powell encouraged by cooler inflation data (YF)

• Six Flags merges with Cedar Fair to become largest amusement park (Fox)

• FDA approves Eli Lilly Alzheimer’s drug (CNBC)

• FTC sues to block $4B merger of mattress firms (Fox)

• Stocks are looking bullish after a big first half of the year (YF)

• Hedge funds are just too big to beat the market (BB)

• Manhattan is buyers’ market as real estate prices fall, inventory rises (CNBC)

• Why Boeing needs Spirit Aerosystems (Axios)

• U.S. Treasury yields in focus as investors monitor data, Powell remarks (CNBC)

• Economist warns stocks could fall 30% if U.S. heads for painful recession (Fox)

• Barry Diller is weighing takeover of Paramount (Axios)

_{CAPITAL PULSE}

Markets Rundown

Stocks rallied on Tuesday thanks to Tesla beating earnings, Fed press conference.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Tesla ($TSLA) +10% after reporting better-than-expected Q2 deliveries.

• (+) Paramount ($PARA) +6% after even more takeover talk by IAC.

• (–) Chewy ($CHWY) -2% as investors make sense of the new meme stock classification.

Private Dealmaking

• MBK Partners bought Alinamin Pharma from Blackstone for $2.17 billion

• CleanSpark bought Bitcoin miner Griid Infrastructure for $155 million

• Odaseva, a cybersecurity startup, raised $54 million

• Clay, a sales and marketing AI startup, raised $46 million

• K-ID, a safety and compliance tech platform, raised $45 million

• Zencity, a community engagement platform, raised $40 million

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

_{BOOK OF THE DAY}

May Contain Lies

Our lives are minefields of misinformation. It ripples through our social media feeds, our daily headlines, and the pronouncements of politicians, executives, and authors. Stories, statistics, and studies are everywhere, allowing people to find evidence to support whatever position they want. Many of these sources are flawed, yet by playing on our emotions and preying on our biases, they can gain widespread acceptance, warp our views, and distort our decisions.

In this eye-opening book, renowned economist Alex Edmans teaches us how to separate fact from fiction. Using colorful examples—from a wellness guru’s tragic but fabricated backstory to the blunders that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster to the diet that ensnared millions yet hastened its founder’s death—Edmans highlights the biases that cause us to mistake statements for facts, facts for data, data for evidence, and evidence for proof.

Armed with the knowledge of what to guard against, he then provides a practical guide to combat this tide of misinformation. Going beyond simply checking the facts and explaining individual statistics, Edmans explores the relationships between statistics—the science of cause and effect—ultimately training us to think smarter, sharper, and more critically. May Contain Lies is an essential read for anyone who wants to make better sense of the world and better decisions.

"A wonderful litany of the myriad ways in which we can be deceived, and deceive ourselves."

_{DAILY VISUAL}

Growth in Private and Public Credit Markets

Public IG market has grown from $3 trillion 2010 to $9 trillion today

_{PRESENTED BY HEBBIA}

Curious How the World’s Best Investors are Using AI?

Hebbia is changing the investing game with AI.

Hebbia works with some of the largest investing firms in the world. And they’ve been around for 3 years longer than ChatGPT!

Hebbia can draft one-pagers based on your team’s investment philosophy (and so much more).

Book a 20-minute demo to see it for yourself.

_{DAILY ACUMEN}

Words

Your words create your world.

They're spells you cast on yourself and others.

"I can't" and "I can" are equally prophetic. Maya Angelou said, "People will forget what you said and did, but never how you made them feel."

What reality are you speaking into existence? Choose your words wisely - they're building your future.

Words shape our thoughts, and thoughts shape our actions. The stories we tell ourselves become our reality. Reframe your challenges as opportunities.

Replace "I have to" with "I get to." Speak kindness to others and to yourself.

Your words are seeds - plant them carefully and watch your world bloom.

_{ENLIGHTENMENT}

Short Squeez Picks

• 4 types of work friends that could hurt your career

• How CEOs build confidence in their leadership

• Top 3 takeaways from one of Bill Gates’ summer must-reads

• The process of putting yourself first

• The relationship between mood, focus, and productivity

_{MEME-A-PALOOZA}

Memes of the Day