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Good Morning,

Wall Street bonuses are set to rise, PE giants are hunting Japanese talent, Bridgewater's CIO is bullish on US stocks, Trump wants TikTok back on the menu, and three activist funds revealed some high-profile stakes, including Elliott making its biggest single investment ever.

In another corner of the activist world (Bill Ackman's Twitter), Ackman unironically suggested that "Yale is no different than Hamas," and the memes perfectly sum up everyone's reaction.

See how to streamline your financial operations with BILL and they'll send you a gift of your choice!

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks edged lower yesterday, taking a pause from the election rally

  • S&P and Nasdaq snapped five-day win streaks

• Europe's Stoxx 600 plunged 2% to a near three-month low in its worst day since August due to China jitters and poor earnings

• US yields surged back to post-election highs

• Euro hit a one-year low

• Canadian dollar hit a two-year low versus US dollar

• Bitcoin touched $90k

• Today, we'll receive a crucial October CPI report

Earnings

• Home Depot beat Q3 earnings estimates and raised its FY outlook on improved sales, though consumers remained cautious on spending (CNBC) 

• Spotify jumped 7% after posting record profitability and strong Q3 subscriber growth, and beating on Q4 profit estimates on successful cost cuts (RT) 

• Shopify surged 21% after beating Q3 EPS and revenue estimates and forecasting an optimistic holiday season after attracting a growing number of large customers (CNBC) 

• Cava jumped 16% on a Q3 beat-and-raise as same-store sales rose 18% (IBD)

• Hertz missed Q3 EPS and revenue estimates on high depreciation costs tied to its massive Tesla EV fleet (BBG) 

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Cisco

  • Thursday: Walt Disney, Applied Materials

  • Friday: Alibaba

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Online food prices fell YoY for the first time since Covid (BBG)

• Wall Street bonuses are set to rise for the first time since 2021 (BBG) 

• Big bank M&A could be spurred by Trump administration (RT)

• Bridgewater co-CIO says US stocks are 'good thing' to hold now (RT)

• Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser says it’s 'game on' for US M&A (BBG)

• US banks saw weaker loan demand in Q3 (RT)

• PE giants are hunting Japanese talent as regional M&A booms (RT)

• Trump is considering continuing Biden's crackdown on Big Tech (FT)

• Wall Street's Bessent and Lutnick are in lead for Treasury secretary role (FT)

• ETF inflows smashed full-year records (FT)

• Millennium sacked John Curtice after less than one year (BBG)

• OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman returned to the firm (RT)

• Activist Elliott took a $5B stake in Honeywell (BBG)

• Activist ValueAct took a $1B stake in Meta (RT)

• Activist Effissimo took a stake in struggling Nissan (FT)

• Trump wants to halt the looming TikTok ban (NYT)

• Disney explores wider field of candidates to succeed CEO Iger (WSJ)

• Chipotle shareholders sued over fallout from smaller portion sizes (RT)

• Donald Trump Jr. is joining VC firm 1789 Capital (RT)

• US is investigating Russia accounts UBS took over from Credit Suisse (RT)

• Netflix's ad-tier subscription is taking off (BBG)

• Trump picked Musk to lead Department of Government Efficiency (WSJ)

• Global carbon emissions rose 0.8% in 2024 (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Management of 7-Eleven-owner Seven & i Holdings is considering taking the business private in a $58B deal

• Energy investment firm Aethon Energy Management is exploring a sale or IPO of its natural gas assets at a ~$10B valuation, including debt

• Carlyle is exploring options for Flender, a mechanical and electrical drive systems maker, which could be valued at $3.2B-$4.3B

• Malaysia’s largest bank Maybank is considering buying out Ageas' minority stake in insurer Etiqa at a $4B valuation

• Drug distributor Cardinal Health will take a 71% stake in gastroenterology care platform GI Alliance from Apollo and buy diabetes medicine provider Advanced Diabetes Supply Group from PE firm Court Square Partners in two deals worth ~$4B total

• US sued to block UnitedHealth Group's $3.3B purchase of home healthcare provider Amedisys

• Billionaire founder Pham Nhat Vuong pledged to invest ~$2B into struggling EV maker VinFast

• Pfizer is exploring a sale of its hospital drugs unit for a few billion dollars

• Hilcorp Energy will acquire ExxonMobil's oil drilling assets in the Permian Basin for ~$1B

• Sweden's Modern Times Group will acquire Australian gaming company Aristocrat Leisure's Plarium Global mobile-gaming unit for $820M

• UK REIT Segro agreed to buy $500M worth of warehouse landlord Tritax EuroBox's property portfolio

• Infrastructure investor Stonepeak agreed to acquire Boundary Street Capital, a $700M AUM private credit firm

• Crypto data provider Kaiko will acquire European crypto index provider Vinter

• Germany's Commerzbank is considering acquiring mid-sized peer Hamburg Commercial Bank or Oldenburgische Landesbank to fend off a possible takeover by Italy's UniCredit 

• Food-delivery startup Wonder is in advanced talks to buy Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway

VC

• Volkswagen will raise its JV investment in EV startup Rivian to $5.8B

• LatAm neobank Ualá raised a $300M Series E at a $2.75B valuation led by Allianz X 

• OpenAI rival Writer raised a $200M Series C at a $1.9B valuation led by ICONIQ Growth 

• Canadian fintech Neo Financial raised a $260M Series D from Tobi Lütke, Stewart Butterfield, and more

• Space launch company Firefly Aerospace raised a $175M Series D at a $2B+ valuation led by RPM Ventures 

• Recogni, an energy efficient GenAI inference systems, raised a $102M Series C led by Celesta Capital and GreatPoint Ventures 

• Cloud management startup ScaleOps raised a $58M Series B led by Lightspeed Venture Partners 

• Auror, a New Zealand-based retail crime reporting and intelligence software, raised a $56M Series C led by Axon Enterprise, W23 Global, and more

• Cash flow management platform Agicap raised a $48M Series C at a $750M valuation led by AVP 

• Data management platform Conduktor raised a $30M Series B led by RTP Global 

• Japanese personal finance app SmartBank raised $26M from Global Brain 

• Prokeep, a customer communication and engagement platform for distributors, raised a $25M Series A led by Dahlia Equity Partners 

• LocalStack, a startup helping developers emulate and test cloud apps locally, raised a $25M Series A led by Notable Capital 

• Klim, a regenerative farming platform, raised a $22M Series A led by BNP Paribas 

• Web browser automation startup Browserbase raised a $21M Series A led by CRV and Kleiner Perkins 

• Fleek, a online marketplace connecting second-hand clothing wholesalers and retailers, raised a $20.4M seed and Series A led by HV Capital 

• Cloud usage tracking startup PointFive raised a $20M Series A led by Salesforce Ventures 

• Vega, an alternative investment technology startup, raised a $20M Series A led by Apollo and Motive

• NovoPayment, a financial and payment infrastructure service provider, received a $20M investment from Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital 

• Bounce, a startup providing luggage storage and delivery services, raised a $19M Series B led by Sapphire Sport

• Rural Indian e-commerce startup Wheelocity raised a $15M Series A-2 led by Lightspeed 

• Alison.ai, a creative AI solutions for advertising, raised a $13.3M seed round led by Almaz Capital 

• Vatn Systems, a startup producing autonomous underwater vehicles for defense, raised a $13M seed round led by DYNE Ventures 

• Warehouse automation startup Brightpick raised $12M from EBRD Venture Capital 

• Lithium battery recycling startup Tozero raised an $11.7M seed round led by NordicNinja 

• Cannabis delivery startup Eaze raised a $10M Series B

• Proptech startup KUGU raised an $9.3M Series A from Tengelmann Ventures, Gewobag ID, and more

• AI-powered brand protection and authentication startup Ennoventure raised an $8.9M Series A led by Tanglin Venture Partners 

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• NTPC Green Energy, the clean energy subsidiary of India's state-backed NTPC, is seeking to raise $1.2B at a $12B valuation in a local IPO

• Saudi finance firm United International Holding's $264M IPO received $34.8B worth of orders

• Indonesia's Adaro Energy, the world's sixth-largest coal miner, will spin off its Adaro Andalan unit in a $292M IPO

• Spanish utility Cox ABG downsized its IPO for a second time to $186M

Debt 

• Dish Network's creditors rejected the firm's $8.9B bond-exchange offer

• Vokswagen's customer financing business Volkswagen Financial Services is set to raise $2.9B via three green bonds

• South Africa raised $3.5B in its first dollar bond sale since 2022

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• Spirit is preparing to file for bankruptcy after merger talks with Frontier Airlines broke down

• Boeing and Airbus will provide over $450M in financial assistance to Spirit AeroSystems to keep the key supplier afloat ahead of their planned acquisition of the company

• Car financing firm Vroom plans to file for Chapter 11 to restructure $290M of debt

• Chinese conglomerate Geely is in advanced talks to take control of German flying taxi startup Volocopter at a $110M valuation to save it from potential bankruptcy

• Fortress seized control of art house cinema chain Curzon for $5M at an auction 

Fundraising

• Defense and government-focused PE firm Godspeed Capital Management closed its third fund at $675M

• Multistage VC Altos Ventures closed its latest fund at $500M

• Credit firm Brigade Capital received a $300M backing from Blackstone for its private credit strategy and CLO platform

• State Bank of India's SBI Ventures plans to raise $237M for its third climate fund

Crypto Corner

• 'Underbanked' households are more likely to own crypto (RT)

• US is still trying to seize SBF's crypto (BBG)

Exec’s Picks

Bloomberg published an interesting read on the quant wizards attempting to decode private market returns.

WSJ published a profile on Viswas "Vis" Raghavan: the outsider trying to restore Citi to IB glory.

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