At the SPAC of Dawn
With the S&P 500 rolling into a two-month high on the back of positive inflation numbers, all hopes have to be for nothing too concerning coming out of a still-packed end of the week.
Multiple Fed officials are set to give remarks throughout the next two days and the financial markets will also be digesting industrial production figures, manufacturing capacity utilization and the home builder confidence index later today. Friday will bring further housing starts and building permits data before the attention is set to shift to retail next week.
Next Wednesday, the market will take a look at new jobless claims, durable goods orders and consumer sentiment but the real test will be the initial sales numbers coming out of Black Friday as the year-end holiday season kicks off. Walmart (NYSE:WMT) provided an early peek at the retail vibes this morning by beating its third quarter earnings and revenue expectations with a 5% sales increase.
Macy’s (NYSE:M) meanwhile, announced this morning that it saw sales drop 7% in the quarter but it improved margin and raised its guidance, providing more festive vibes for the 11 SPACs currently working to close combinations with consumer companies.
News and Rumors
- PR: The US Department of Energy has cleared Montana Technologies’ AirJoule device for harvesting drinkable water from the air, opening the door to it being incorporated into commercial HVAC systems. Montana Tecnologies announced a combination with Power & Digital II (NASDAQ:XPDB) in June that is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
- TechCrunch: Arrival (NASDAQ:ARVL) has secured a $50 million bridge loan on a 120-day term from Antara Capital and Highbridge Capital that it expects to tide it over to a sale of the company. It combined with CIIG in March 2021.
Liquidations
- Financial Strategies Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:FXCO) took the unusual step of declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy despite having an announced deal with Austin Biosciences.
Scheduling Notes
- ShoulderUp Technology Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:SUAC) postponed its extension vote from 4:30 pm ET November 15 to 12:30 pm ET November 17.
Plum Acquisition Corp. I (NASDAQ:PLMI) has entered into a definitive agreement to combine with digital transformation company Veea for a total enterprise value of approximately $281 million. New York City-based Veea aims to simplify secure edge computing by improving application responsiveness, reducing bandwidth and data transport costs, and eliminating central cloud dependency. The parties expect the transaction to be...
L Catterton Asia (NASDAQ:LCAA) announced this morning that it has upsized the committed financing in its combination with EV sports car maker Lotus to $870 million in total. The latest fuel injection comes in the form of $750 million in convertible notes and PIPE commitments under so far undisclosed terms. Counted purely as a PIPE,...
At the SPAC of Dawn SPAC closing timelines can always be somewhat unpredictable, but PROOF I (NYSE:PACI) has the opportunity today to vie for a recent speed record today. It announced a combination with private aviation firm Volato 118 days ago on August 2 and its shareholders are set to vote to approve the combination...
Dune Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ:DUNE) announced in an 8-K today that it has once again modified its agreement with sustainable energy firm Global Hydrogen. This amendment marks a reduction in Global Hydrogen’s equity value from $48 million to $43 million, alongside an increase in the available shares of common stock that is for the Global Gas Corporation...
At the SPAC of Dawn After mixed signals for the consumer sector earlier this month, initial Black Friday sales numbers have shown that Americans were not too stuffed for a shopping spree this year. Shoppers bagged between $9.8 billion and $10 billion in goods online, depending on one’s preferred source, either of which would be...