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Good Morning,
JPMorgan is partnering with sports legends in an athlete wealth management push, Goldman is urging dealmakers to push ahead with deals despite volatility, tariff refund lawsuits are surging amid uncertainty about US plans, and Polymarket is opening a first-of-its-kind bar in DC designed for 'situation monitoring.'
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Let's dive in.
Before The Bell
As of 3/18/2026 market close.
Learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*
Markets
US stocks tumbled yesterday as traders digested hawkish sentiment from the Fed following its rate decision
S&P had its worst rate-decision day since December 2024
Dw fell to a new YTD low
Spinoff stocks are beating the S&P YTD by the widest margin since Covid
Gold slumped
Brent topped $110/bbl on fresh Iran strikes
Bitcoin fell by the most in three weeks
Earnings
Micron beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates as sales almost tripled on soaring memory demand (CNBC)
Tencent topped Q4 revenue estimates as gaming revenues gained 18%; the firm announced plans to double AI CapEx (CNBC)
Macy's beat Q4 earnings and revenue estimates but gave a cautious FY outlook amid slowing sales (CNBC)
General Mills missed Q4 earnings and revenue estimates as price cuts and consumer pullback weighed (BBG)
What we're watching this week:
Today: Alibaba, Accenture, FedEx, Darden Restaurants
Full calendar here
Prediction Markets
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Headline Roundup
JPMorgan tapped Tom Brady, Dwyane Wade, and others for a new athlete WM push (CNBC)
Polymarket to open bar in DC designed for 'situation monitoring' (FC)
Fed held rates steady at 3.5%-3.75% on rising inflation expectations (CNBC)
US producer inflation rose 3.4% YoY (CNBC)
Foreign holdings of US Treasuries rose in January (BBG)
Goldman tells dealmakers not to wait for perfection in M&A chase (BBG)
Goldman expects continued rebound in Europe IPO market (BBG)
Wall Street is looking to offload billions in LBO debt (BBG)
Banks lean in to finance private credit despite poor sentiment (WSJ)
Private credit exodus spreads to consumer loans (WSJ)
Private credit BDC 'reckoning' may last for years (BBG)
Giant IPOs from SpaceX to OpenAI put index rules under pressure (BBG)
MLB's low valuations may make teams PE targets (SPC)
K&E defies PE downturn with record $11M partner pay (FT)
Asia bankers are quitting Wall Street jobs for corporate roles (BBG)
Microsoft weighs lawsuit over $50B Amazon-OpenAI cloud deal (FT)
Meta is shutting down the metaverse (CNBC)
SEC floats scaling company reporting to firm size (BBG)
Tariff refund lawsuits surge amid uncertainty about US plans (BBG)
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Deal Flow
M&A / Strategic
Italian lender UniCredit is not ruling out improving terms of its bid for German peer Commerzbank after submitting a lowball $40B offer
IBM closed its $11B acquisition of data-streaming company Confluent
KKR agreed to invest up to $310M in a partnership with Indian commercial EV maker PMI Electro and its e-bus platform Allfleet India
Activist Altai Capital Management called on $200M-listed medtech OraSure Technologies to explore a sale and threatened a proxy fight
Foods giant Kraft Heinz and consumer goods giant Unilever recently held talks on a mega merger of their food brands
Polymarket acquired crypto payments startup Brahma
Nutella maker Ferrero agreed to acquire protein snack maker Bold Snacks
VC
Nikola founder and convicted fraudster Trevor Milton is seeking to raise $1B for autonomous AI flight company SyberJet Aircraft
RedotPay, a Hong Kong crypto infrastructure provider, is seeking to raise $150M at a $4B valuation in a pre-IPO round from Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, and Blockchain Capital
XBOW, an autonomous offensive security company, raised a $120M Series C at a $1B valuation led by DFJ Growth and Northzone
Advanced Navigation, an Australian deep-tech navigation company, raised a $111M Series C led by Airtree Ventures
AI video startup Video Rebirth raised $80M in funding from AMD Ventures and Hyundai
Beautiful.ai, a developer of AI-powered presentation software, raised a $45M round led by General Catalyst
RunSybil, an AI cybersecurity startup, raised $40M in a funding round led by Khosla Ventures
BusRight, an all-in-one student transportation technology platform, raised an over $30M funding round led by Volition Capital
Foresight, an AI-powered project delivery platform for large-scale infrastructure, raised a $25M Series A led by Macquarie
Condor Software, a financial intelligence platform for life sciences, raised a $24M Series A led by Insight Partners
Autoscience, an automated AI research lab startup, raised a $14M seed round led by General Catalyst
Aerchain, an AI-native enterprise procurement platform, raised a $13M Series A led by Pavestone VC
Eragon, an enterprise AI startup, raised a $12M round at a $100M post-money valuation led by Long Journey Ventures
Silhouette Exchange, a privacy-preserving on-chain trading infrastructure startup, raised an $8M seed round co-led by Polychain Capital and 6MV
Obin AI, an enterprise AI company building an agentic workforce for financial institutions, raised a $7M seed round led by Motive Partners
Get real-time updates on any startup, VC, or sector on Fundable
IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades
Crypto exchange Kraken paused IPO plans
Activist Elliott built a stake in $116B-listed Japanese shipping giant Mitsui OSK Lines
TDR Capital and I Squared Capital-backed power generator rental firm Aggreko is preparing to file for an IPO at a $15B valuation
Silver Lake-backed legal data firm Relativity picked banks for an IPO that could raise $750M at a $4B valuation
Malaysia's Sunway Healthcare raised $730M in the country's largest IPO in nine years
AI drone software maker Swarmer surged 1,000% in two days to a $680M market cap in the best US IPO debut since Newsmax's 2,200% gain last year
SPAC / SPV
Autonomous flight technology developer Merlin Labs raised $200M in a merger with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. IV
Debt
Banks led by Bank of America are weighing an investment-grade bond sale to help finance junk-rated Nexstar Media Group's $6.2B acquisition of rival TV-station owner Tegna
Blackstone led a $1.3B financing to back the merger of pharma companies Paratek Pharmaceuticals and Radius Health
India's Renew Energy Global is set to raise an $800M foreign-FX loan from StanChart and SocGen in India's largest offshore financing YTD
African agri giant ETG Group is sounding out investors for a debut international bond sale
Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed
Administrators of collapsed UK mortgage lender MFS secured a worldwide freezing order against owner Paresh Raja amid fraud allegations
Jay-Z-backed whiskey brand Uncle Nearest filed for bankruptcy amid a legal battle with lender Farm Credit Mid-America, who is seeking to dismiss the filing and impose $75k in sanctions
Funds / Secondaries
Saudi developer Arabian Dyar and Saudi financial services firm Al Rajhi Capital formed a $1.2B real estate fund to develop projects in Mecca and Medina
QHP Capital raised a $1.1B CV for Azurity Pharmaceuticals led by HarbourVest Partners
PE firm Lone Star Funds raised $1B to invest in residential mortgages issued to SME owners and entrepreneurs
Spanish PE firm MCH raised a $345M CV for baked goods firm Europastry led by Ares
Swiss investment firm Quaero Capital raised a CV for its water utilities rollup led by Hamilton Lane
Crypto Sum Snapshot
Bitcoin surprises as oasis of calm as Iran war jolts markets
Booming crypto exchange trade.xyz gets official S&P data in 'TradFi' push
Tether gave a loan to Lutnick's Cantor Fitzgerald trust days after he transferred stakes to children
SEC approves Nasdaq rule to allow tokenized stocks & securities trading
Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.
Exec’s Picks
FT published an update on 'Y’all Street' and Texas' pitch to attract corporate America.
Ben Carlson shared an interesting opinion on why AI won't replace financial advisors.
Financial Services Recruiting 💼
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We aim to place strong candidates across private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, growth equity, credit, and investment banking.
We're currently seeking talent for some incredible roles. Head over to Litney Partners to drop your resume / create your profile and we'd love to get in touch!
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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.