US stocks inched upwards yesterday as tech enthusiasm took center stage against inflation and Iran woes

US 30Y Treasures auctioned at 5% yields for the first time since 2007 

Japan 20Y yield rose to 3.495% to the highest since 1997

SoftBank booked a $20B gain at its Vision Fund on OpenAI's surging valuation as other investments such as Klarna and DiDi Global fell (CNBC)

Cisco beat Q3 earnings and revenue estimates on surging AI orders as it seeks to catch up to networking peers in the AI race; the firm will cut 4k jobs (CNBC)

Alibaba posted its first operating loss since 2021 on surging AI spending but gave a bullish tone amid a 38% rise in cloud revenue and forecasts for positive ROI this decade (CNBC)

What we're watching this week:  

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You can literally just do anything in markets nowadays

Trade event contracts on Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market

Kevin Warsh was confirmed as next Fed chair (CNBC)

Trump met with Xi (CNBC)

Europe's few AI plays soar as US tech frenzy goes global (FT)

US upstream O&G M&A hit a two-year high in Q1 (RT) 

PE-owned insurers are boosting private credit holdings (BBG)

Wall Street's top prosecutor says private credit is not 'a cancer' (FT)

Roundhill Memory ETF is the fastest-growing ETF ever (RT)

Polymarket trading volume declined for first time since August (BBG)

Citadel told key researchers to relocate from Hong Kong or quit (FT)

JPMorgan is finally rolling out Chase retail bank in Europe (FT)

JPMorgan reshuffled IB leadership in major shake-up (FT)

Golub Capital named founding brothers as co-CEOs (BBG)

Microsoft is eyeing startup M&A for life after OpenAI (RT)

Sam Altman has over $2B stakes in companies that dealt with OpenAI (RT)

OpenAI floats idea of global AI governance body with US and China (BBG)

LinkedIn will cut 5% of jobs (RT)

JPMorgan is open to talks with France's right-wing National Rally party (RT)

Cools your bed up to 20ºF below room temperature

Detects and reduces snoring by 45%

Increases daytime energy levels by up to 34%

UK chip firm Arm and owner SoftBank made a last-minute offer to acquire AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems weeks before it announced plans to IPO at a $34B valuation

European defense giant CSG offered to buy a stake in Franco-German tank maker KNDS ahead of its planned IPO which could fetch a $30B valuation

UK product testing firm Intertek is set to accept European PE firm EQT's fourth and final improved offer at $12.5B amid support from activists Harris Associates, Palliser Capital, and Lost Coast Collective

Oil giant Saudi Aramco is seeking to raise $10B in a sale and leaseback of its real estate holdings alongside other deals to unlock capital

Shoe brand SKECHERS raised its offer to resolve a lawsuit brought by hedge funds challenging 3G Capital's $9.4B LBO to 3.2% higher than the LBO price

Equinox Gold agreed to acquire Canada's Orla Mining in a $5.1B stock deal

Blackstone walked away from a proposed $4B deal with struggling Hong Kong developer New World Development after the firm refused to hand over control; a consortium led by RRJ Capital and Ares are in talks for a minority stake

Japanese regional lenders Aichi Financial and San ju San Financial will merge to form an over $3.5B-listed entity

Turkish AI CRM startup Insider One acquired US peer Bluecore in a $1B cash-and-stock deal ahead of a planned IPO

PJ Millennium, a company linked to Chinese EV battery giant CATL, will buy a 38% stake in Chinese data center operator VNET Group from Shandong Hi-Speed Holdings in a $940M deal

Austrian lender Raiffeisen Bank International raised its cash bid for smaller Balkan peer Addiko Bank by 15% to a 10% discount to its $625M market cap

Italian energy firm Ludoil will acquire a 51% stake in Sicilian oil refiner ‌ISAB from PE fund G.O.I. Energy

Spirits company Sazerac will invest in Alix Earle-backed ‌canned cocktail brand SIPMARGS weeks after investing in Kendall Jenner's 818 Tequila 

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin is weighing its first external fundraising, the firm is valued between $50B-$100B 

Palmer Luckey's defense tech startup Anduril raised a $5B Series H at a $61B valuation led by Thrive Capital and a16z

Peter Thiel-backed German drone startup Quantum Systems is in talks to raise a $700M round at an $8.2B valuation led by Airbus and Blackstone 

Recursive Superintelligence, a UK five-month-old self-teaching AI startup, raised $650M at a $4.65B valuation led by GV and Greycroft

Mind Robotics, the robotics startup spun out of Rivian, raised a $400M round at a $3.4B valuation led by Kleiner Perkins

UK AI chip startup Fractile raised a $220M Series B led by Factorial Funds, Accel, and Founders Fund 

Forus, an AI-powered network connecting doctors, pharmacies, payers, and biopharma, raised over $160M in funding from Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Accel, and others

Oishii, an indoor vertical strawberry farm, raised a $150M Series C led by SPARX Asset Management 

Judgment Labs, an infrastructure company for improving agents, raised $32M across seed and Series A rounds led by Lightspeed Venture Partners

Martha Stewart's AI home management startup Hint launched with a $10M seed round led by Slow Ventures

AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems will price its upsized IPO above a marketed range to raise $5.5B at a $40B valuation

French crypto wallet provider Ledger paused its $4B US IPO plans

Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel will boost its stake in its UK-listed African unit Airtel Africa through a $2.9B share swap before a planned IPO of the unit's mobile-money business Airtel Money

Geothermal energy developer Fervo Energy rose 33% in its trading debut after raising $1.9B for a $10.2B market cap in an upsized IPO

Uzbekistan's SWF UzNIF raised $604M for a $1.95B valuation in a dual London and Uzbekistan IPO

DVC Partners-owned Italian gold dealer Gens Aurea is seeking to raise $350M-$600M in Italy's largest IPO in three years

$340M-listed Canadian subprime lender Goeasy adopted a poison pill to thwart M&A bids following a 77% YTD stock decline

Chinese AI biotech startup Metis TechBio jumped 127% in its trading debut after raising $270M for a $3.5B market cap in a Hong Kong IPO

Spanish engineering firm TSK raised $175M in Spain's first major IPO this year

Chinese oncology biotech Impact Therapeutics jumped 108% in its trading debut after raising $108M in a Hong Kong IPO

Canadian delivery company UniUni will merge Canada's MAK Acquisition in an over $1B deal

Wells Fargo sold $6B of investment grade bonds 

Consumer electronics giant Whirlpool is in talks for a bond sale to address $3B of nearing maturities amid a stock collapse

Japanese lender MUFG is seeking to offload risk tied to $2B of loans to private credit

Struggling Swedish green steel startup Stegra agreed with creditors to unlock $1.8B of undrawn credit lines after recently obtaining an additional $1.6B of equity

India's largest private thermal power producer Adani Power plans to raise $835M in local debt markets this year to fund expansion

Pacific Equity Partners-backed Aussie education resources supplier Modern Star sweetened terms on a $410M loan by 25-50 bps

Pacific Equity Partners-backed hospital operator Healthe Care Australia sweetened terms on a $325M loan by 25-50 bps

Mexican petrochemicals JV Braskem Idesa is nearing a deal with creditors for a $250M DIP loan as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing

Lone Star Funds-backed German lender IKB has $40M exposure to collapsed UK mortgage lender MFS

French quant hedge fund Capital Fund Management is expanding in China after AUM surged 42% to $27B since October

Credit investor Antares Capital raised $8.5B for its third senior loan fund

Hedge fund Dymon Asia Capital is on track to hit $8B AUM by Q3 as LPs pile in

Chinese PE firm Boyu Capital plans to raise $3B for a new fund

S2G Investments raised $1B for a debut growth fund to focus on energy and food security

European lower MM PE firm Capital A raised $600M for its fifth flagship fund in just two months

Finback Investment Partners, the investment firm of politician Jeb Bush, raised $500M for its second PE fund

Duration Ventures, a VC of two ex-Lightspeed and General Catalyst partners, plans to raise a $375M debut fund to invest in early-stage enterprise AI

Tokenized Anthropic and OpenAI stocks slumped after firms warned that unauthorized equity transfers may be void

Charles Schwab rolled out spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading 

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Bloomberg published its most extensive deep dive on Epstein's network, connections, and global influence yet.

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