—— Twitter sues Musk for deal cancellation; Morgan Stanley leadership is under the reshuffle; Japanese Senate election results come out; tens of thousands of U.S. housing transactions stranded in June; bio companies use AI to predict new crown variants; Investors are bullish on the New York hotel industry.
1. Twitter sues Musk
After Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, announced the termination of Twitter acquisition, Twitter hires the M&A law firm Lipton, Rosen & Katz LLP. and prepare to sue Musk.
Twitter’s current share price is only $34.35 per share, nearly a third less than Musk’s $54.2 per share offer. Such a “loss-making” business is unacceptable to Musk.
Last week, Musk notified Twitter that he was terminating the deal, accusing Twitter of not only giving false and misleading information but violating the terms of multiple deals.
Musk’s reason for halting trading is likely to be his concerns about Tesla’s stock price movement and financial burden
Source: Financial Times – Merger arbitrage funds go hunting as corporate deals come under threat
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2. Morgan Stanley leadership is under the reshuffle
Recently, the leadership of leading investment bank Morgan Stanley has undergone a major reshuffle.
Eli Gross and Simon Smith were promoted to co-heads of the department, while current heads Mark Eichorn and Susie Huang were Promoted to Executive Chairman of Morgan Stanley.
Previously, Susie Huang was named one of the 100 most powerful women in the American financial industry. They will lead a new senior investment group to deepen the bank’s trading work.
According to Dealogic, Morgan Stanley is the fourth most profitable investment bank so far this year.
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3. Japanese Senate election results come out
This week, results in Japan’s upper house election showed a huge advantage for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Among the 125 seats in the re-election, the Liberal Democratic Party in the ruling coalition won 63 seats, and the Komeito party won 13 seats, far exceeding the previously set “majority” target.
Together with the seats won by two other parties that support constitutional reform, the ruling coalition has 93 seats. Therefore, Fumio Kishida has the opportunity to amend Article 9 of the Constitution and formulate policies more freely.
But analysts also said the death of Shinzo Abe, Japan’s most influential leader in decades, could shake the balance of power within the Liberal Democratic Party.
Since 2012, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito have formed a ruling coalition “Self-government to establish a political power” and dominate the ruling coalition
Source: Financial Times – Japan’s ruling LDP wins landslide victory after Shinzo Abe’s assassination
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4. Many U.S. housing deals were stranded in June
With home prices stubbornly high due to rising mortgage rates, more and more homebuyers are temporarily abandoning their purchases.
Nationwide, nearly 60,000 home sales were canceled in June, accounting for 15% of the month’s total and the highest rate since April 2020.
The U.S. housing market is now at its worst level of affordability in over a decade. Buyers have so many reasons to back out of the contract that the average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage has doubled from what it was at the start of the year.
The good part is that the current cooling in the market has put many U.S. homebuyers into a wait-and-see phase.
15% of all housing deals that went into contract in June ran aground at the last minute
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5. Bio companies use AI to predict new coronavirus variants
Biological company Apriori announced that it is using artificial intelligence to model how the new coronavirus may change, aiming to predict the emergence of new varieties of the new coronavirus.
Using this information, “mutation-proof” vaccines and virus treatments can be devised to combat current and future viruses that may mutate, and to provide early warning to governments.
Apriori has received $50 million in funding from Flagship Pioneering Inc to build and improve the artificial intelligence Octavia.
Octavia is said to be able to assess the risk of new SARS-CoV-2 variants in seconds.
The development of vaccines and the establishment of defense measures can be significantly earlier by using AI
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6. Biden renews call for gun ban laws
U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.S. is littered with weapons of war and renewed calls for stronger gun restrictions and regulations while praising a new law that advances gun safety.
The new law is enacted to make it harder for young people and those with a history of family violence to own a gun.
Biden also encouraged states to pass red flag laws that would allow courts to legally confiscate guns from potentially dangerous individuals.
“If this law had been introduced a few years ago, many lives would have been saved,” Biden said in a speech at the White House today.
Biden again urges Congress to pass ban on military-grade weapons and high-capacity magazines as soon as possible
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7. Investors are bullish on the New York hotel industry
The coronavirus has dealt a huge blow to New York City’s hotel industry over the past two years.
The good news is that as more tourists start visiting the city again, investors believe that New York’s hotel market is poised to be one of the lucrative industries once again.
“The Manhattan market is recovering faster than many expected,” said Mitchell Hochberg, president of Lightstone.
The current high labor price is one of the biggest challenges to the hotel industrial recovery
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The content of this article comes from various financial news media such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Bloomberg.