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Good Morning,

OpenAI raised $300M, bitcoin is on a hot streak, 80% of S&P 500 firms have outperformed earnings estimates, SVB considered selling $20B of bonds in the months before the bank run, Lyft wants its employees back in the office, Hollywood is bracing for a writers’ strike, and JPMorgan acquired First Republic Bank.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• All three major US indexes finished Friday in the green as strong corporate earnings helped reverse a selloff earlier in the week

  • The Dow notched its best month since January while the S&P logged a 1.5% gain in its second-straight winning month

• Futures traders are pricing the Fed fund rate target to peak at 4.75%-5%, with a 90% chance of a final 25 bps rate hike this week

• Bitcoin is on course for its longest streak of monthly gains since 2021

• On Wednesday, we'll receive the Fed's latest rate policy decision along with crucial jobs data this week

Earnings

• Exxon topped Q1 estimates on top and bottom lines as rising oil and gas output overcame a pullback in energy prices; the firm posted record profit that was more than double from a year ago (CNBC)

• Chevron beat Q1 estimates with net profits up 5% YoY thanks to earnings from refining compensating for the slide in energy prices (CNBC)

• Lazard reported a surprise Q1 loss as dealmaking slumped and warned of an uncertain outlook for the FY while announcing a 10% workforce cut (RT)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Tuesday: BP, Uber, AMD, Ford, Starbucks, Pfizer

  • Wednesday: CVS Health, Qualcomm, Zillow

  • Thursday: Apple, DoorDash, Shopify, Block, Kraft Heinz, Coinbase, Lyft, Bumble

  • Friday: AMC, Warner Bros Discovery

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Eurozone GDP grew 0.1% in Q1 (FT)

• US housing market is in stalemate (NYT)

• 80% of S&P 500 firms have beaten Q1 earning estimates with over half reporting (CNBC)

• Bond markets are still reeling after experiencing their biggest swings in decades (RT)

• Five of China's largest lenders posted shrinking Q1 margins (RT)

• US-listed shares of Chinese small-caps soared in a meme-like rally (RT)

• SVB discussed selling up to $20B in bonds months before bank run (FT)

• US will allow the auction of shares in oil refiner Citgo Petroleum amid creditor Venezuela-related protections (RT)

• Companies are colluding to cheat H-1B Visa Lottery (WSJ)

• Signature Bank had liquidity problems years before collapse (AX)

• US money market funds see largest fund inflow in four weeks (RT)

• Lyft asked employees back to office more regularly (RT)

• Epstein’s private calendar reveals prominent names, including CIA chief and Goldman’s legal chief (WSJ)

• Firms including JPMorgan and H&M will invest a total $100M in carbon removal credits (FT)

• Hollywood is bracing for a potential writers’ strike (WSJ)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• JPMorgan will acquire most of First Republic Bank following a third bank failure this year (FT)

• Qatari group led by Sheikh Jassim submitted a final bid of $6.3B for Manchester United, while billionaire Jim Ratcliffe submitted an unknown bid as well (BBG)

• Japan's Astellas Pharma agreed to buy US-based drugmaker IVERIC Bio for ~$5.9B (RT)

• Malaysian gambling giant Genting sold the largest undeveloped waterfront parcel in downtown Miami for $1.2B (BBG)

• Singapore wealth fund GIC agreed to buy a portfolio of Japanese logistics assets from Blackstone for $800M+ (BBG)

• Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard acquired 112 gas stations in the Southeastern US from Mapco Express (BBG)

• PE firm Bain Capital built a stake in German software company Software AG (BBG)

VC

• OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, raised $300M+ from Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and K2 Global at a ~$28B valuation (TC)

• Polymateria, a startup using biotransformation to safely return plastic items to nature, raised a $25.1M Series B led by ABC Impact and Indorama Ventures (FN)

• TympaHealth, a provider of digitized assessments of ear and hearing health, raised a $23M Series A led by Octopus Ventures (FN)

• ​​Networking platform Levitate raised $14M in funding led by Bull City Venture Partners (FN)

• Wayhome, a London-based startup providing a hybrid part-buy part-rent homeownership model, raised a $10.1M Series A led by Allianz X, Augmentum Fintech, Volution, and others (FN)

• Posh, an event management and ticketing platform, raised a $5M seed round led by Companyon Ventures and EPIC Ventures (FN)

• VyperCore, a fabless RISC-V processor startup, raised a $5M seed round from Octopus Ventures, Foresight WAE Technology, and more (FN)

• Bits Technologies, a Stockholm-based business and customer identity startup, raised a $4.4M seed round led by Unusual Ventures (FN)

• Equipme, a B2B marketplace and asset management platform, raised a $3.8M seed round led by La Famiglia VC (FN)

• Centuro Global, a startup providing an AI-powered platform to help companies expand overseas, raised $3.6M in funding from Mercia (FN)

• Identity verification company IDPartner raised a $3.1M seed round led by Abstract Ventures (FN)

• WunderGraph, an open-source framework enabling developers to quickly build backends, raised a $3M seed round led by Aspenwood Ventures (FN)

• Elmo, a short-term rental platform for electric/hybrid cars, raised $2.9M in funding from Highgoal Capital Management, FlyCap, Barolo Invest, and SAGGIS (FN)

• Pricing decisions platform Luca Software raised a $2.5M seed round led by Menlo Ventures (FN)

• Dori, a provider of a financial platform utilizing ML to simplify and streamline venture equity transactions, raised a $2M round from Counterpart Ventures, Correlation Ventures, and Service Provider Capital (FN)

• Fast-growing music licensing platform Melodie raised a $700k round at a $9.9M valuation led by co-owners of The Drop Festival and Nick Menere, founder of Code Barrel (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• SoftBank-owned chipmaker ARM confidentially filed for a US IPO and is seeking to raise $8B-$10B (RT)

• British fashion brand Superdry is in talks to raise $19M through share sale (RT)

Debt

• JPMorgan offered the PE firms targeting a ~$10B LBO of fast-food chain Subway a $5B acquisition financing plan (RT)

• Indonesian e-commerce delivery firm GoTo scrapped talks for a $500M convertible bond sale to focus on profit (YH)

Fundraising

• PE firm Audax raised $5B for its Audax Private Equity Fund VII to invest in business services, consumer, financial services, healthcare, industrial services and technologies, and software and tech (BOI)

• Anthemis raised $50M for the largest early-stage fintech fund focused on female founders (ANT)

Crypto Corner

• Mastercard plans to expand its crypto payment card program by partnering with crypto firms (RT)

• SEC fined crypto exchange Coinme ~$4M for a misleading and unregistered offering of a crypto asset UpToken (RT)

• Crypto industry offers self-critique at Consensus conference (AX)

Exec’s Picks

• Derek Thompson wrote an interesting piece on the possibility of AI as humanity’s biggest time suck.

• Execs from music companies like Spotify and UMG are working through threats and opportunities presented by generative AI.

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