Exhibit 99.1
More Than Just Another Rah-Rah Note!
This has been a challenging and complex year for our clients, the capital markets, Jefferies and most, if not all, of us. Our fiscal third quarter ended yesterday, and summer is rapidly coming to a close for most of us. We have all been navigating this complicated world to the very best of our abilities. If you feel like a yo-yo or a spinning top, it is understandable:
| a. | Global capital markets new issue activity has fallen off a cliff.![LOGO](https://capedge.com/proxy/8-K/0001193125-22-235689/g398267g0901013248504.jpg) |
| b. | Interest rates and volatility have been rising.![LOGO](https://capedge.com/proxy/8-K/0001193125-22-235689/g398267g0901013248739.jpg) |
| c. | New Covid cases, while still pervasive, have been coming down in number (at least for now).![LOGO](https://capedge.com/proxy/8-K/0001193125-22-235689/g398267g0901013248864.jpg) ![LOGO](https://capedge.com/proxy/8-K/0001193125-22-235689/g398267g0901013248504.jpg) |
| d. | Geopolitical complications and associated risk seem to increase weekly.![LOGO](https://capedge.com/proxy/8-K/0001193125-22-235689/g398267g0901013249082.jpg) ![LOGO](https://capedge.com/proxy/8-K/0001193125-22-235689/g398267g0901013249082.jpg) |
| e. | Liquidity feels like it is going down.![LOGO](https://capedge.com/proxy/8-K/0001193125-22-235689/g398267g0901013248504.jpg) |
| f. | Political uncertainty is on the rise.![LOGO](https://capedge.com/proxy/8-K/0001193125-22-235689/g398267g0901013248864.jpg) |
We could easily continue this progression through the rest of the alphabet, but we expect you all get the point. We at Jefferies have powered through these past few years remarkably well. At times, life and our business seemed daunting and all but impossible to get through. However, in hindsight – as is often the case – it turns out we were more aware of what was going on around us, the implication for clients, and how to ensure positive outcomes than we thought. Yup, looking back, it almost seems like it was obvious what needed to get done, and we just put our individual and collective heads down and grinded through it. The results spoke for themselves.
However, this year and today definitely feel different. Many of our investing clients are getting whipsawed and hurt. Our corporate clients are concerned about the risks of playing offense, questioning expansion plans and acquisitions, and worrying about impending capital needs and the higher associated costs. We ourselves have operated for nearly the past six months with one of the biggest engines of our firm, new issue capital markets, operating at a fraction of our capacity and capabilities because of the almost complete shutdown in demand. While we could sit back and say this is all an unfortunate market reality that someday will pass, and hence we should just be patient, the purpose of this note is to make sure that never happens. Especially, most certainly not as we enter our important fourth and final quarter of our year. Instead, we would like to point out a few reminders, thoughts and additional perspectives to help us all relax and recharge over the remaining summer days so that we can come back from family or personal time ready to sprint forward together and make the most of the last three months of Jefferies’ fiscal 2022.