🏠 Airbnb to 'House' an IPO this Month

What you need to know before the US markets open 🇺🇸

Hey Global Investor, here's what you need to know before the US markets open.

Market Snapshot 📈

S&P 500 (Wednesday Close) 3,380.35 +46.66 (1.40%)

NASDAQ (Wednesday Close) 11,012.24 +229.42 (2.13%)

FTSE 100 (5 PM IST) 6212.77 -67.35 (-1.07%)

NIFTY 50 (Today's Close) 11,300.45 −7.95 (0.070%)

USDINR (5 PM IST) 74.83 (1 Year +4.73%)

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Airbnb Planning an IPO in its Most Testing Period

The home-sharing Unicorn plans to go public this year with Morgan Stanley leading the offering and Goldman Sachs playing a ‘key role.’

What Happened? According to a Wall Street Journal report, Airbnb has chosen the most testing period in its history to go public. We could see the listing before the end of the year, but the exact timeline will depend upon market conditions and the Security and Exchange Commission’s review process. The report also suggests the company is talking to Morgan Stanley to lead the offering, with Goldman Sachs playing a pivotal role.

This is an extremely challenging time for Airbnb. The company has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues and refunds because of the demand destruction witnessed by the broader hospitality industry due to Covid-19

Airbnb’s latest valuation, from the funding round in April, was $18B when it had raised $1B with a reported verbal agreement to improve management and cut fixed costs. This valuation is considered a significant down round, given its earlier valuation of $31B when the company had raised funds in 2017. In May, the company had announced the layoff of 25% of its workforce and put the transportation and television production plans on hold.

A gradual recovery is expected, based on the announcement from Airbnb’s CEO, that US bookings in June saw a Y-o-Y growth. Locations within a 200-mile radius of Airbnb customers are trending, and reflect people’s preference for local travel, given the pandemic and concomitant travel restrictions.

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Newsworthy 📰

• Amazon Accelerate: Amazon to hold virtual seller conference as lawmakers examine its power over third-party merchants (AMZN +2.65%)

• United We Stand: Walmart and Instacart partner for same-day U.S. delivery in fight against Amazon’s Whole Foods (WMT +1.30%)

• Do It Right This Time: Facebook, Twitter step up fight against misinformation on U.S. elections (FB +1.47%, TWTR +0.43%)

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Later Today 🕒

• 6.00 pm IST: Initial Jobless Claims

• 6.00 pm IST: Continuing Jobless Claims

• 6.00 pm IST: Import Price Index

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Fun Fact of The Day 🌞

Your eyes can distinguish approximately 10 million different colors

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