Elon Musk’s fundraiser

Good morning.?I'm Phil Rosen, reporting from Los Angeles.?

The good weather here has left me postponing my return to wintry New York. After weeks of sunshine, a few seconds of Manhattan air just might give me frostbite at this point.

And speaking of cold hard reality, the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk is trying to raise fresh funds to pay off some of the pricier bits of his $13 billion Twitter loan.

Sign up here to receive Insider’s full 10 Things Before the Opening Bell newsletter — directly in your inbox.

1. New fundraising to the tune of $3 billion?could help Musk?repay the obligations?he took on in his Twitter takeover.?

Sources told the Wall Street Journal yesterday that the?Chief Twit's?team has been exploring options for an equity raise that could be used to pay down?the most expensive slice of the $13 billion debt.

Twitter's unsecured bridge loans, which total about?$3 billion, carry a 10% interest rate in addition to the secured overnight financing rate, which has soared in recent months.?

For every quarter that goes by without refinancing, the interest rate goes up by an additional 0.50 percentage point,?regulatory filings?show.?

That said, if Twitter can?pay back those unsecured bridge loans, meeting its debt obligations would be much more manageable.

Still, there's no guarantee?that fundraising comes through, as?investors remain wary?of Twitter's ability to generate cash-flow.?

In December, former credit analyst Jeffrey Davies predicted that Twitter's total interest expense is roughly $1.25 billion per year. That comes out to just about?$3.4 million per day?in interest payments.

Musk predicted in December that Twitter's business will break even in 2023 thanks to cost-cutting measures (including?letting go?of some 6,000 staffers).?

Remember, it's been four years?since Twitter notched an?annual profit, and it's posted a loss in eight of the last 10 years.?

Musk knowingly took on a sinking ship, and securing more investors to help him do so will play a key role in how his?social media gambit?plays out.

What are some ways you think Elon Musk could boost revenue at Twitter? Let us know in the comments.

In other news:

2. This contrarian value fund manager beat 99% of his competitors last year.?He explained the four rules that helped him become one of the best managers on Wall Street —?and eight of his favorite stocks to buy right now.

3. Credit Suisse's stock chief said investors are piling into all the wrong sectors.?Markets seem to be anticipating a recession that won't come, in his view.?He broke down three areas to pile cash into for the best returns.

4. Evercore recommended these 12 oversold growth stocks to take advantage of China's reopening.?This batch of Chinese companies look poised to recover some of their recent losses, as evidenced by rising earnings estimates.?Get the list.

5. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies pared some of their January gains in the last 24 hours.?Still, the crypto market as a whole has regained its $1 trillion valuation in 2023 —?and the world's most popular token has seen a 36% jump this month.

This is a condensed version of Insider’s 10 Things Before the Opening Bell newsletter. To see items 6-10, sign up here to receive the full newsletter in your inbox.

Plus, Insider has a wide array of industry-specific newsletters — see them all here.

This newsletter was curated by Phil Rosen.?