🍋 Pet Food Gets Tastier

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Good Morning! Congratulations to Novak Djokovic for winning Wimbledon and his 21st grand slam! Surely hoping for a win himself is Elon Musk, who will have to get prepared for a heated court battle with Twitter after pulling out of the agreement to purchase the social media company. Also heated is inflation, and economists expect the upcoming inflation report on Wednesday could be hotter than May's 8.6% YoY pace. Even stamps are being affected by inflation, with the price for a 1-ounce increasing to 60 cents from 58 cents.

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1. Story of the Day: Pet Food Gets Tastier

Human food companies are finding pet food appealing, as pressures build to diversify their businesses. The branching out into healthier, packaged foods has not been enough, and soon your furry friends may be getting lunch from the likes of General Mills.

General Mills shared a 37% increase in sales in their pet segment last quarter, which outpaced the overall 8% organic net sales growth. Even Mars, the M&M and Snickers maker, appointed its new CEO from within the Mars Petcare position, signaling the importance of animal products for the candy company.

With the economy potentially sliding into a recession, pet sales can help support companies as consumers always want their pets to be happy and healthy. US pet owners spent $50 billion on pet food and treats last year, up 13.6% for the year the American Pet Products Association said. This increase is also likely partly thanks to all the pandemic pets that people got when they were stuck at home.

CFRA Research analyst Arun Sundaram told Axios, "It's a pretty recession-resilient category. Even when times are tough for the consumer, the consumer is probably going to trade down for themselves first before they start trading down for their pet."

Short Squeez Takeaway: I'm not going to lie, I've accidentally picked up dog treats while shopping thinking it was beef jerky. I realized my mistake before purchasing, but if the humanization of pet food takes place, shoppers will definitely have to pay more attention to what snacks they're grabbing. Or, at least I do...

2. Markets Rundown

Equity markets were mixed on Friday, and crypto gave back some of its recent gains.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Vita Coco ($COCO) +11% after Bank of America upgraded the stock to buy and raised the price target for the drink company.

• (+) Spirit Airlines ($SAVE) +4% because they postponed another shareholder vote about merging with Frontier Group.

• (–) Upstart ($UPST) -20% after issuing a profit warning saying it won't reach already-reduced targets for its second quarter.

Private Dealmaking

• General Atlantic, an investment firm with $79 billion assets under management, is exploring an IPO

• Coalition, a cyber insurance provider, raises $250 million in funding, bringing valuation to $5 billion 

• Calyxo, a start-up aiming to remove kidney stone fragments with vacuum, raises $33 million

• Aurora Labs, an Israeli autotech start-up, raises $63 million in funding

3. Top Reads

• Handshakes are back (Axios)

• EVs are getting cheaper as gas prices sore (CNBC)

• Private equity’s woes go beyond deal freeze (WP)

• You might be flying like a pelican in a few years (Axios)

• The merger term that could decide Twitter vs. Musk (Axios)

• The industries inflation squeezes more than others (CNBC)

• Fintech start-ups lead layoff wave (TC)

• ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ pulls in $143 million in domestic opening (CNBC)

• M&A helping offset IPO drought (BB)

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4. Book of the Day: The Burnout Fix: Overcome Overwhelm, Beat Busy, and Sustain Success in the New World of Work

In The Burnout Fix, the award-winning psychologist and board-certified leadership coach Dr. Jacinta M. Jiménez shows you how to harness science-backed resilience strategies to survive, and thrive, in today’s “always on, always connected” world―where a reported 60% of employees report being stressed out all or most of the time at work.

Packed with compelling, real-world stories from years of coaching and the latest research in positive, social, and motivational psychology, The Burnout Fix shows how neglecting to nurture your personal pulse can undermine all your efforts at working harder and “smarter.”

You’ll learn how integrate healthy personal “PULSE” practices into all aspects of your life, from pacing for performance and leveraging leisure time to securing a support system and evaluating how to regain control of your time and priorities.

Whether you are an individual who wishes to build out a set of lasting resilience capabilities, a leader dedicated to keeping your team or organization engaged and flourishing, The Burnout Fix will reshape the way you think about success while giving you―and your people―the tools and strategies you need to thrive.

“Excessive workplace stress has been estimated to account for 120,000 deaths each year.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

• Start investing early and stick with it, especially in bear markets

• For students, cost of living figures into internship decisions

• Cowboy shares life hacks from the ranch

• Dutch house approves to make remote work a legal right

• 14 tech pro’s tips for boosting daily productivity

6. Daily Visual: Shipping Costs Head Back to Earth

Cost from China to west coast North America; per 40-ft container

Source: Axios

7. Daily Acumen: Avoid Multiplying by Zero

Howard Marks wrote:

“The best foundation for above-average long-term stock market performance is the absence of disasters. There will always be cases and years in which, when all goes right, those who take on more risk will do better than we do. In the long run, however, I feel strongly that seeking relative performance which is just a little bit above average on a consistent basis – with protection against poor absolute results in tough times – will prove more effective than ‘swinging for the fences.”

If you avoid the losers, the winners will take care of themselves.

8. Crypto Corner by Bonkalytics.com

• For crypto survivors, there are deals to be had

• 5 events that could put an end to the crypto bear market

• Crypto’s last man standing

• Bitcoin was supposed to hedge against inflation - here’s why it didn’t work

• Crypto is coming to your credit card

• What the dot-com bust can teach us about the crypto crash

For more crypto-focused content, sign-up here.

9. Memes of the Day

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