US stocks rebounded yesterday after Trump seemingly chickened out from Iran strikes due to persistent oil market risks  

Global bonds have lost $2.5T in value since the Iran war on track for the biggest monthly loss in three years

US 2Y yield climbed to 4% for the first time since June

UK gilts are down 5% MTD on track for its largest fall since its 8% slide in September 2002

Trading in Germany 2Y futures was halted twice due to volatility 

Oil fell ~10%

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

TACO trade?

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

Iran launched a 10M rial banknote due to hyperinflation (FT)

Iran contradicted Trump after US decision to pause strikes (RT)

Trump raises prospect of diplomatic end to Iran war (FT)

Hedge funds are shorting US and EM Asia for Europe stocks (RT)

CitSec sees markets shifting to 'demand destruction' (BBG)

JPMorgan is offering clients a new way to hedge AI debt risk (BBG)

Volatility is threatening Wall Street's efforts to offload major LBO debt (BBG) 

OpenAI is offering PE firms 'guaranteed minimum return' of 17.5% (RT) 

Bipartisan senators want to ban sports betting on prediction markets (WSJ)

BlackRock's Larry Fink warned AI may intensify wealth inequality (FT)

Jury in social media addiction trial is unable to come to consensus (RT)

OnlyFans-owner Leonid Radvinsky died of cancer at 43 (BBG)

Wall Street's Delmonico's steakhouse is expanding after two centuries (WSJ) 

Cosmetics giant Estée Lauder is in talks to combine with Spanish beauty group Puig to create an over $40B enterprise

Italy's state-controlled postal service Poste Italiane submitted a $12.5B cash-and-stock take-private bid for Telecom Italia at a 9% premium

Apollo, Bain ​Capital, Advent, ​and CVC are weighing bids for German auto parts giant ‌Continental's industrial division at a potential $4.1B valuation 

GI Partners is exploring a $3.5B sale of HVAC rollup American Residential Services

Chinese miner Zijin Mining agreed to acquire a controlling stake in rival Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining for $2.6B

Gilead ​Sciences will acquire biotech ​Ouro ​Medicines in ‌a ⁠$2.2B deal 

French foods giant Danone agreed to acquire UK plant-based foods maker Huel for $1.15B

Chinese electronics maker TCL agreed to acquire a majority stake in Sony's home entertainment business in a $1B deal

Prestige Consumer Healthcare agreed to buy a portfolio of brands including the Breathe Right nasal strip and Dimetapp cough and cold relief brand from Foundation Consumer Healthcare for $1B

Asian ride-hailing and delivery company Grab agreed to buy Delivery Hero's Foodpanda operations in Taiwan for $600M cash

Blackstone is considering acquiring a $200M-$300M stake in either of Indian cricket teams Rajasthan Royals or Royal Challengers Bengaluru in its first-ever sports investment

Earendil Labs, an AI-driven biotech R&D company, raised $787M from Dimension Capital, DST Global, and others  

Chip interconnect startup Kandou AI raised a $225M Series A led by Maverick Silicon 

Agentic observability platform Dash0 raised a $110M Series B at a $1B valuation led by Balderton Capital

Gimlet Labs, a startup offering a multi-silicon inference cloud for running AI workloads across diverse hardware, raised an $80M Series A led by Menlo Ventures

Lace, a Norwegian chipmaking equipment startup, raised a $40M Series A led by Atomico 

KEWAZO, a robotics and AI company automating heavy industry, raised a $35M round  led by Schooner Capital  

Namespace, a compute platform for code, raised a $23M combined seed and Series A led by New Enterprise Associates

Hosted.ai, a GPU infrastructure software platform, raised a $19M seed round led by Creandum

Interloom Technologies, an enterprise operations platform that captures expert knowledge into a persistent memory layer for AI agents, raised a $16.5M seed round led by DN Capital

GlobalComix, a NYC-based digital comics platform provider, raised $13M in funding co-led by SBI US Gateway Fund and Point72 Ventures 

NurivaTech, a sports computer vision and AI startup, raised an $8M seed round from MLB veterans, an ex-NFL coach, and others

Strategy is seeking to raise $42B in common stock and perpetual preferred shares to fund Bitcoin purchases

Berkshire Hathaway took a 2.5% stake in Japanese ​insurer Tokio Marine for $1.8B 

Activist Inclusive Capital Partners is looking to sell its $380M stake in German pharma giant Bayer

O&G equipment maker HMH Holding is seeking to raise $230M at a $950M valuation in an IPO

Saudi quick-delivery startup Ninja is gauging investor appetite for a Saudi IPO; the firm was valued at $1.5B last year

Banks led by JPMorgan kicked off an $8B US and euro junk-bond sale to fund the record $55B LBO of video game maker Electronic Arts 

Bain Capital-owned Bridge Data Centres is in talks with lenders for a potential $6B loan

JPMorgan and Vici Properties are providing $4.3B in construction financing for One Beverly Hills, an ultra-luxury property combining a new Aman resort and the Beverly Hilton, in one of the largest such deals

Electric utility PacifiCorp raised $2.5B in a high-grade bond sale

Insurance giant Progressive sold $1.5B of high-grade bonds in its first deal in three years

Vietnam Prosperity JSC Bank is seeking a $1.2B sustainability‑linked loan in what would be the country's largest ESG deal ever

A group of banks including Morgan Stanley and Citigroup agreed to loan Brazilian conglomerate CSN up to $1.4B as CSN looks to raise cash via asset sales amid liquidity concerns

Local bondholders of Brazilian supermarket chain GPA hired Moelis for an out-of-court debt restructuring proceeding

Senegal tapped $755M of undisclosed loans via total returns swaps from Africa Finance Corporation and First Abu Dhabi Bank in a bid to avoid default

Growth equity investor Lead Edge Capital raised $3.5B for its seventh fund to focus on software 

US will invest $250M in a supply chain investment fund with participation from SoftBank, Temasek, and Mubadala 

UK solo VC Air Street Capital raised $232M to chase hot AI bets

Henry Kravis-backed crypto asset manager ParaFi raised $125M for a new VC fund

5c(c) Capital, a new VC focused on prediction markets, plans to raise a $35M debut fund with backing from Polymarket and Kalshi founders Shayne Coplan and Tarek Mansour

Apollo's private credit fund is limiting investor withdrawals after redemption requests surge

Dynasty behind Swiss private bank Banque Syz splits over crypto strategy clash

Larry Fink says tokenization could transform finance like the internet in 1996

Senators reached a deal with White House to resolve stablecoin yield dispute with banks

The market's moving, are you? No matter what the market is doing, tastytrade's advanced charts, in-feed news, and smart tools help you stay up-to-date and quickly adapt your strategy when the market shifts. Manage your entire portfolio on one platform with tastytrade.

New rules has corporate America finally revealing some of its tax secrets. WSJ uncovered some insights from filings by Nvidia, JPMorgan, McDonald's, Pfizer, and others for 2025. Read their findings here.

LSE Business Review published a interesting blog piece on research that finds a negative correlation between men's financial confidence and confidence in their masculinity. Read it here.