US stocks gained yesterday as another optimistic inflation reading lowered odds of future Fed rate hikes 

US Treasuries rose for a second day on soft back-to-back inflation readings

ASML issued a second-straight beat-and-raise as customers continue to ramp up production of AI chips (CNBC)

Morgan Stanley posted record Q2 profit and revenue on a 69% surge in equities trading and a boost in wealth management driven by newly-minted SpaceX millionaires (CNBC)

BlackRock beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates as AUM hit a record $15T on a boost from buoyant markets and ETF inflows (WSJ)

J&J issued a Q2 beat-and-raise as strong growth from immunology ​drug Tremfya and cancer blockbuster ​Darzalex ​offset erosion from older products and a drop in sales for heart pumps in its Abiomed unit (RT)

United Airlines beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates on strong demand but warned of $6B in added fuel costs (CNBC)

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

The sun did in fact set on the British Empire

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

China Q2 GDP grew 4.3%, the slowest since 2022 (CNBC)

US producer inflation rose 5.5% YoY (CNBC)

Blockbuster stock sales threaten to overwhelm the bull market (WSJ)

Wall Street's IB machine is firing on all cylinders (RT)

Record IPOs spur best Wall Street ECM revenue since 2021 (BBG)

Regional banks and wealth are leading financial services M&A (BBG)

Korean president calls stock market 'unstable' after wild swings (BBG)

Long UK equities has become a contrarian trade (BBG)

SpaceX fell below its IPO price for the first time (BBG)

SpaceX lost over $1T in market cap from the recent selloff (FT)

Short-sellers swarm SpaceX with paper profits nearing $4B (BBG)

Buffett initiated Berkshire's $10B investment in Google (CNBC)

Jamie Dimon compares widespread access to Anthropic's Mythos to 'giving ballistic missiles to individuals' (BBG)

Thinking Machines Lab launched an open-weight AI model (RT)

Chipotle opened its first store in Mexico (RT)

Billionaires who fled California wealth tax risk intrusive residency audit (FT)

Buffett called Bill Gates' Epstein activities 'distasteful' but says he makes mistakes too (CNBC)

Congress grilled Goldman exec Ruemmler on her Epstein relationship (WSJ)

Uber is set to acquire German peer Delivery Hero for $14.3B

Eli Lilly is in talks to acquire $2B-listed psychedelics biotech AtaiBeckley at a potential 60% premium

European PE firm EQT made an improved  $1.75B offer for Aussie asset manager Perpetual after its previous bid was rejected

Hyundai will acquire SoftBank’s remaining $9.65% stake in robotics firm Boston Dynamics for $325M

Brazilian education company Anima Holding slumped 30% after it agreed to repurchase university FMU at an $80M equity value 

First Quantum Minerals is in talks to sell a minority stake in its Taca Taca copper project in Argentina to buyers including Rio Tinto, Mitsubishi, and Mitsui & Co.

BrewDog co-founder James Watt made a new bid to buy back his beer company from Tilray Brands to restore ownership stakes for his retail 'equity punk' backers

Walden Robotics, a full-stack physical AI company building and deploying general-purpose robots, raised a $300M seed round at a $1.1B valuation co-led by Toyota and Deviation Capital 

Emergent, an AI software creation platform, raised a $130M Series C at a $1.5B valuation led by Creaegis

Lumin Digital, the compounding growth platform for banks and credit unions, raised $115M in new capital at a $1.6B valuation led by Light Street Capital

Senra, a wire harness manufacturing and software startup, raised a $65M Series B co-led by Lowercarbon and Interlagos

Hemispheric, a NeuroAI company building a platform to decode the human brain, raised $52M in early-stage funding from Hanaco Ventures, OneMind/Awareness Capital, L Catterton, and others

Rime, a voice AI startup, raised a $24M Series A led by M13 Ventures 

Augmodo, a provider of physical AI assistants for workers, raised a $21M round at a $350M valuation led by TQ Ventures

Overtone, a fully AI arranged dating app of Hinge founder Justin McLeod, raised an $18M round from Match Group, FirstMark Capital, and Pace Capital

Meticulous, an AI-powered software testing startup, raised a $15M Series A led by Chemistry

Vorflux AI, an autonomous software engineering platform startup, raised a $15M seed round led by Y Combinator, Peak XV Partners, and Alliance DAO

Anthropic is seeking to meet with investors ahead of a potential October IPO

Chinese optics firm Innolight is set to receive regulator approval for a $7B Hong Kong listing

The $5B Hong Kong IPO of Chinese state-backed agri-chemicals giant Syngenta is facing delays due to market conditions

a16z-backed biopharma startup Braveheart Bio filed for an IPO

Immunology biotech Attovia Therapeutics filed for an IPO

Angola plans to sell stakes in 10 companies including diamond producer Endiama, flag carrier Taag-Linhas Aereas, and fixed-line operator Angola Telecom by year-end

Blackstone-backed data center operator QTS Realty Trust scrapped a $1B bond sale for a $3.25B leveraged loan sale led by JPMorgan

A group of lenders led by JPMorgan is lining up a $3B debt package to back Warburg Pincus' $7B acquisition of specialty pharmacy company PANTHERx Rare from General Atlantic

Anthropic is in talks to expand its $2.5B credit line

MLB's New York Yankees are in advanced talks to raise $3B of financing from Apollo

David Beckham-backed supplement brand IM8 lined up $1B in growth financing from General Catalyst

KKR is marketing a debt deal tied to PayPal's BNPL business in Germany

A group of senior creditors to France's Altice telecoms accused the firm of defaulting on $2.3B of debt

Japanese PE firm Advantage Partners raised $1.9B for a fund to invest in major national security assets that are otherwise unliley to be sold to foreign investors

Carlyle's FOF arm AlpInvest raised $1.7B for its second fund to invest in single-asset CVs

Professional services-focused PE firm LionLight Capital raised $215M for its debut fund

Swiss investment firm ACE & Company launched a new PE platform

Crypto firms are offering pre-IPO perps on Chinese chipmaker CXMT

Stanford study says Polymarket crypto bets are being manipulated

Circle clashed with Tether-backed fund over market manipulation concerns

JPMorgan, BlackRock, and Goldman will tokenize stocks and Treasuries

Wall Street banks have a new rival threatening their turf and it's just the PE firm down the block: Apollo.

FT published an insightful read on why companies can suddenly no longer take their sweet time with CEO succession.

Also, hedge fund titans have a new alpha engine: smaller rivals.