US and Europe markets remained closed on Friday in observance of Good Friday

US stocks closed mixed on Thursday as traders digested Iran war developments ahead of Friday's crucial jobs report

European diesel futures topped $200/bbl

Foxconn posted a 30% jump in Q1 revenue on strong demand for AI products, though it cautioned about 'volatile' global politics (RT)

What we're watching this week: 

Full calendar here

The only American who should have boots on the ground in Iran is Citrini Analyst #3

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

Trump raised threats against Iran in Easter day rant (CNBC)

US unemployment fell to 4.3% in solid jobs report (CNBC)

Gulf states consider new pipelines to avoid Strait of Hormuz (FT)

OPEC+ will boost oil output when Strait of Hormuz reopens (RT)

Andurand gained 30% in March (BBG) 

Multi-strats get hammered by Iran market turbulence (BBG)

Hedge funds sold global stocks at the fastest pace in 13 years (BBG)

PE fundraising fell to the slowest pace in a decade (WSJ)

AI and war are spooking buyers for PE firms itching to sell (BBG)

Mega IPOs are set to test US market depth despite volatility (RT)

Companies are delaying IPOs and slashing dividends amid Iran conflict (RT) 

Dealmaking competition is eroding junk loans' last line of defense (BBG)

Consumer mega deals made a rare comeback in Q1 (RT)

Private credit's CLO machine ramps up in push to raise more cash (BBG)

Worst Chinese tech earnings in three years signals tough comeback (BBG)

Japanese firms reduced share buybacks for the first time since Covid (BBG)

Musk is requiring SpaceX's IPO advisors to ‌buy subscriptions to Grok (NYT)

Jamie Dimon eyes media venture following JPMorgan retirement (AX)

First prediction market note offers Nvidia bets with less risk (BBG)

US sued three states to stop regulation of prediction markets (RT)

US will drop insider trading case against fugitive ex-Centerview banker (BBG)

More Americans are breaking into the upper middle class (WSJ)

Trump fired Pam 'Dow 50k' Bondi from AG role (CNBC)

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Paramount Skydance is in talks to raise $24B in equity from Gulf SWFs PIF, QIA, and L'imad to back its $81B acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery

$22B-listed tower operator SBA Communications is exploring a sale after receiving takeover interest

France's TotalEnergies and Abu Dhabi's Masdar will merge their onshore renewable energy assets in nine Asian countries into a JV with a $2.2B valuation

Indonesia's SWF Danantara will acquire and merge the asset management units of state-owned lenders Bank Mandiri, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank Negara Indonesia, and Permodalan Nasional Madani in a $160M deal

Deutsche Lufthansa and Air France-KLM submitted bids for an up to 49.9% stake in Portuguese airline TAP as Portugal pursues a privatization at a reported $1.7B valuation

European oil giants including TotalEnergies, Shell, BP, and Repsol are eyeing a majority stake in the Shenandoah offshore field in the Gulf of America from Blackstone-backed Beacon Offshore Energy and Quantum Capital and Houston Energy-backed ​HEQ Deepwater

NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo took an equity stake in IM8, the health supplement company of Prenetics and soccer legend David Beckham

OpenAI acquired vital technology talk show TBPN

EPG, a Singaporean modular data center infrastructure provider, raised an over $100M Series B+ led by Decarbonization Partners

Arda, an AI manufacturing startup, is raising a $70M round at a $700M valuation led by Founders Fund

Alcatraz, an AI-powered physical access control company, raised a $50M Series B led by BlackPeak Capital

Noon, an AI-native product design platform, raised $44M from Chemistry, First Round Capital, Scribble Ventures, and others

Palmonas, a demi-fine jewellery startup, raised a $40M Series B led by Xponentia Capital and Vertex Growth Fund

AccuQuant, a fintech platform focused on AI and data-driven technologies, raised a $20M funding round led  

PrismML, a startup developing 1-bit quantized LLMs, raised $16M from Khosla Ventures, Cerberus Capital, and Caltech

Alien, a startup building trust infrastructure for the agentic economy, raised a $7.1M pre-seed round led by Initialized Capital and Finality

Miravoice, a voice AI platform for precision data collection, raised a $6.3M seed round led by Unusual Ventures

SpaceX reportedly boosted its target IPO valuation to above $2T

SpaceX held talks with Saudi's PIF for a $5B anchor investment in its IPO

Canada's Barrick Mining tapped Goldman Sachs to lead an IPO of its North American assets which could fetch a $60B valuation

Chinese optics firm Innolight confidentially filed for a $3B Hong Kong IPO

Blackstone-owned data center operator AirTrunk picked banks for a $1.5B Singapore REIT IPO

Italian yacht maker Ferretti said a sweetened $235 offer ‌by Czech investment firm KKCG Maritime to double its stake from ~15% is 'not fair or reasonable'

Finnish chocolate maker Fazer may IPO by 2029

Kazakhstan's SWF is Samruk-Kazyna is seeking to sell a debut $435M panda bond

Berkshire Hathaway is sounding out investors for a yen bond sale following plans to invest $1.8B in insurer Tokio Marine

Project Walleye, a data center backed by Meta and EQT-owned data center operation EdgeConneX is seeking a $3B loan for a campus with novel financing

PLZ Corp., a cleaning-products maker backed by Pritzker-linked PPC Partners, raised a private credit refinancing from Ares and Antares as the firm works to tackle a $1B debt pile 

Private credit lenders including by Blackstone, Apollo, and KKR refused to extend another lifeline to software company Medallia, raising pressure on owner Thoma Bravo to inject more equity or cede control in a restructuring

Luxury retailer Saks Global secured $500M in financing from key bondholders to support an exit from bankruptcy 

KKR raised $23B for its fourteenth flagship Americas buyout fund

Tech PE firm OceanSound Partners raised $3.4B for its third flagship fund

European lower MM PE firm Fremman Capital raised $930M for its second fund

State-owned British Business Bank raised $260M in its first external capital raise

German skincare brand Beiersdorf launched a $115M second skincare fund

VC Corazon Capital raised $100M for its fourth fund

'Blockchain island' Malta faces off against EU over crypto regulation

Coinbase won conditional approval for a US national trust company charter

Coinbase, Cloudflare, and Stripe formed a nonprofit to govern AI payments protocol x402

Selling by Bitcoin 'whales' blunts institutional demand

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Viral Substack author Citrini Research sent an analyst to monitor the Strait of Hormuz situation IRL. Read their research report here.

Activist hedge fund tycoon Bill Ackman is seeking your personal advice. Please respond to him here.

Bloomberg published a feature interview with author Lionel Shriver, whose latest novel details the 'serious social consequences' of mass migration.