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Good Morning,

Hedge funds are piling into Mexican peso, Tokyo real estate is luring activist funds, Tesla is laying off 10% of its workforce, US retail sales came in hotter than expected, and Goldman crushed earnings estimates on recovering IB.

Supercharge investment research, streamline diligence, and analyze market trends with Rogo, the leading GenAI platform for finance.

Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks continued their fall yesterday on rising yields and concerns over the Middle East conflict 

  • The S&P's 2.6% two-day drop is the biggest in over a year

• US 10Y yields touched YTD highs 

• Gold prices rose ~1.7% toward fresh records

• Aluminum and nickel rose 2.7% and 1.9% respectively as US and UK banned trading in Russia-originated metals

• Mexican peso continued to rally to a nine-year high vs the dollar

• Yen fell below ¥154 vs the dollar for the first time since 1990

  • Dollar index is up 4.6% YTD

Earnings

• Goldman Sachs beat Q1 top and bottom line estimates on a 28% YoY profit increase boosted by a rebound in IB and trading activity (CNBC) 

• Charles Schwab beat Q1 top and bottom line estimates driven by a jump in asset management fees and client assets rising to a record high (RT) 

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, J&J, UnitedHealth Group, United Airlines

  • Wednesday: ASML

  • Thursday: TSMC, Netflix, Blackstone

  • Friday: American Express, P&G

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US retail sales data came in way strong than expected (FT)

• Element Capital Management will return ~$4B to external clients (BBG)

• Institutional investors pull $2B from emerging markets investor Ashmore (FT)

• Tokyo real estate is luring activist hedge funds (BBG)

• US job seekers are demanding a record $81k to accept new job (BBG)

• $400B debt costs mean climate spending could make emerging nations insolvent (RT)

• Hedge funds pile into Mexican peso, fueling world’s best rally (BBG)

• Trend-following hedge funds could sell up to $42B in US equities over next month (RT)

• Growing lawsuits allege rent-fixing driven by algorithms (WSJ)

• US will to file an antitrust suit against Ticketmaster-parent Live Nation (WSJ)

• Fed's reverse repo facility plummets to lowest level in three years (RT)

• Tesla will lay off over 10% of global workforce (CNBC)

• H&R Block hit by outage on Tax Day (WSJ)

• Citigroup's wealth CIO David Bailin will leave after 15 years (BBG)

• GM will its HQ to a new Detroit tower (BBG)

• LA warehouse vacancies climb to highest in a decade (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Italian cables maker Prysmian agreed to buy Encore Wire for ~$4.15B, including debt (BBG) 

• Clearlake Capital Group made a sweetened bid to acquire cloud computing provider Blackbaud for $4.1B (BBG) 

• PE firm Apax Partners will acquire Zellis Group from Bain Capital in a deal that values the UK payroll software company at ~$1.6B (BBG) 

• Italian energy group Eni aims to sell minority stakes in its biofuel and bio-plastic units that could fetch $1.4B to speed up its energy transition (RT) 

• Home safety and security solutions provider Resideo Technologies agreed to acquire security solutions company Snap One in a $1.4B deal, including debt (RT) 

• Regional bank Wintrust Financial will acquire Michigan bank Macatawa Bank in a $510M all-stock deal (GNW) 

• US-based Group 1 Automotive will acquire UK automotive distributor Inchcape’s British dealerships for $431M in cash (FT) 

• Blackstone is again exploring a sale of Motel 6-owner G6 Hospitality (BBG)

• Global Infrastructure Partners shelved plans to buy up to 49% of Malaysia’s biggest port operator MMC Port Holdings from a local tycoon due to price disagreements (BBG) 

• Swiss PE firm Partners Group will acquire a minority stake in hotel company Trinity Investments (BBG)

VC

• EVM-compatible layer 1 blockchain Berachain raised a $100M Series B led by Brevan Howard Digital and Framework Ventures (FN)

• GridBeyond, a developer of AI-powered systems to help businesses and grid operators balance electricity supply and demand, raised a $55M Series C led by Alantra Partners (AX)

• Indian social media startup ShareChat raised a $49M convertible note at a ~$2B valuation from Lightspeed, Temasek, and others (TC)

• Commercial building automation startup Kode Labs raised a $30M Series B led by Maverix Private Equity (TC)

• Ecotrak, a facility management platform, raised a $30M round led by Respida Capital (PRN)

• Pula, a Kenyan insurtech providing agricultural insurance to small-holder farmers, raised a $20M Series B led by BlueOrchard (TC)

• Dot Compliance, a provider of AI-enabled quality management system solutions, raised a $17.5M Series B led by IGP Capital and Vertex Ventures (FN)

• UK-based legal tech startup Lawhive raised an $11.9M seed round led by GV (TC)

• Avalon, an indie game studio, raised a $10M round led by Bitkraft Ventures and Hashed (FN)

• RAAAM Memory Technologies, a startup building cost effective on-chip memory solutions, raised a $4M seed round from Serpentine Ventures, J-Ventures, and more (BW)

• Provenance Chain Network, a startup providing permissioned access to product knowledge, manufacturers, suppliers, and regulators, raised a $4M Series A (FN)

• OpenTrade, an institutional crypto lending platform, raised a $3.2M seed round from a16z CSX, CMCC Global, and more (FN)

• Bumper International, a BNPL startup for car repairs and services, raised a $2.6M Series B extension led by Suzuki Global Ventures and Marubeni Ventures (FN)

• Zoth, a Singapore-based stablecoin and yield company, raised $2.5M in funding led by Blockchain Founders Fund (FN)

• Kamereo, a Vietnamese B2B food sourcing platform, raised a $2.1M round led by Reazon Holdings and Thoru Yamamoto (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• CVC Capital Partners is seeking to raise at least $1.3B in an Amsterdam IPO (BBG) 

• Spanish state investment firm Sepi increased its stake in Telefonica to 5%, or $1.2B (BBG)

• Rubrik, a cloud and data security startup backed by Microsoft, is seeking to raise as much as $713M in its US IPO (BBG) 

• Financial services platform Marex Group is seeking to raise up to $323M in a US IPO (BBG) 

• Japan’s biggest utility Jera is considering an IPO to fund its renewables push (BBG) 

• Spanish fashion retailer Tendam plans to launch an IPO by February 2025 (RT)

Debt

• Struggling Chinese state-backed developer Vanke is preparing an ~$18B collateral package as it seeks new bank loans (BBG) 

• JPMorgan raised $9B through a four-part bond issuance (BBG) 

• Wells Fargo raised $4.25B in new debt (BBG) 

• Florida’s high-speed rail system Brightline kicked off its $1.3B junk debt sale (BBG) 

• Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup received approval from bondholders to roll over half of its $625M exchangeable bonds by eighteen months (BBG) 

• Indian miner Vedanta is seeking to raise $300M through rupee-denominated bonds (BBG) 

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• An investment group led by Sarah Riggs Amico, the executive chair of specialized auto carrier Jack Cooper Transport, dropped its long-shot bid to resurrect bankrupt trucker Yellow (WSJ)

Fundraising

• Macquarie is seeking to raise over $1.5B for its Macquarie Specialised Infrastructure Global Debt Fund (BBG) 

• PE firm Citation Capital is seeking to raise ~$850M for its debut buyout fund (BBG) 

• Early stage VC Alleycorp raised $250M for its latest fund (FN)

Crypto Corner

• Hong Kong approved Bitcoin and Ether ETFs (CD)

Exec’s Picks

• WSJ reporter Dana Mattioli published insights from his forthcoming book describing 'Amazon’s Push to Crack Trader Joe’s—and Dominate Everything.'

   

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