US stocks closed mostly flat in a volatile trading session as oil prices whipsawed on US-Iran war developments

Europe's Stoxx 600 index rose 1.9% in its best day since last April

Asian stocks rebounded

China 10Y-30Y yield curve widened to 52 bps to the most since 2022

WTI plunged 15% by the most since March 2022

Chinese yuan rallied 0.5% in the most since May

Oracle issued a Q4 beat-and-raise as cloud revenue surged 44% and AI bookings quadrupled (CNBC)

Kohl's missed beat Q4 earnings estimates but missed on revenue on softer-than-expected holiday sales and decreasing comps and foot traffic (AX)

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

The succession race all Americans care about…especially Trump 👀

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

New California law requires VCs to ask founders if they are gay (ES)

UK DEI exec says white men will have 'fewer board seats' in future (FT) 

US officials' mixed Iran messages prompt more volatility (BBG)

Momentum trades rapidly unwind as global selloff takes hold (BBG)

Major hedge funds suffer major losses in Iran sting (WSJ)

Canada' OTPP posted its first PE loss since 2009 (BBG)

Foreign inflows to EM slowed to $22B last month (RT)

Argentina's Milei pitches to Wall Street as investors reassess EM (RT)

Activist Weinstein is 'buying pessimism' in private assets (BBG)

Korea dip is luring traders hooked on leveraged ETFs (BBG)

BofA poached four top tech bankers to boost tech IB (RT)

​​Polymarket partnered with Palantir to police sports prediction markets (BBG)

Chevron and Shell are close to new oil production deals in Venezuela (RT)

Exxon will ditch New Jersey incorporation for Texas homecoming (WSJ)

Musk says X Money will enter early public access next month (RT)

China's BYD is exploring an entry into F1 (BBG)

Google's founder is bankrolling Republicans for California governor (BBG)

EQT is exploring a $6B sale of open-source software company SUSE

Brookfield is in talks to acquire World Freight Co. from EQT and PAI Partners for $1.2B-$1.3B

Austrian lender Raiffeisen Bank International is nearing a deal to acquire Spanish lender BBVA's Romanian unit Garanti for $640M

Meta agreed to acquire viral AI bot-only social media platform Moltbook

Blackstone and Blue Owl Capital acquired a minority stake in $16B AUM PE firm Atlas

German ‌broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 is exploring the sale of its digital portfolio, excluding its ParshipMeet and Flaconi units

Nvidia agreed to invest in Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines Lab; the startup was in talks to raise a round at a $50B valuation

Advanced Machine Intelligence, the AI startup of ex-Meta AI chief Yann LeCun, raised a $1B seed round at a $3.50B pre-money valuation co-led by ​Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital, and Bezos Expeditions

Swedish legal AI startup Legora raised a $550M Series D at ​a $5.55B valuation led by Accel

Nexthop AI, an AI networking startup, raised a $500M Series B at a $4.2B valuation led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and a16z

Eridu, an AI networking hardware startup, raised a $200M Series A led by Socratic Partners, John Doerr, and Matter Venture Partners

Armadin, an autonomous AI cybersecurity startup, raised $190M combined seed and Series A funding led by Accel

AI cybersecurity startup Kai raised a $125M funding round led by Evolution Equity Partners

AI recruiting startup Juicebox raised an $80M Series B at an $850M valuation led by DST Global

Jazz, an AI-powered DLP startup, raised a $61M Seed and Series A led by Glilot Capital Partners and Team8

Amber Semiconductor, a startup building vertical power-delivery solutions for AI data centers, raised a $30M Series C

Private credit operations platform PactFi raised a $25M Series A led by 7RIDGE Ecosystem Impact Fund

AI wearables startup Sandbar raised a $23M Series A led by Adjacent and Kindred Ventures

Arya, an AI-enabled couples wellness platform, raised a $21M growth round

Reusable satellite startup Lux Aeterna raised a $10M seed round led by Konvoy

AgentMail, an API-based email platform for AI agents, raised a $6M seed round led by General Catalyst

Captur, an on-device AI image-verification startup, raised a $6M seed round led by Rally Ventures

Musk's SpaceX is demanding early inclusion into the Nasdaq-100 index as part of plans to raise ~$50B at a $1.75T valuation in a Nasdaq IPO

Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square is seeking to raise $5B-$10B in a combined IPO or Pershing Square and closed-end fund Pershing Square USA

SGF Fang, the largest shareholder of $50B-listed Diamondback Energy, is selling $2B worth of shares

SoftBank-backed Japanese payments fintech PayPay is pushing ahead with its $1.1B US IPO despite market turbulence

Carlyle-backed engineering services firm Quest Global began talks to potentially raise $1B in an India IPO 

UK payments fintech SumUp invited banks to pitch on a Europe IPO that could fetch an over $10B valuation; the firm was last valued at $8.5B in 2023

$4B Canadian-listed robotics and satellite company MDA Space is seeking to raise $300M in a US listing

Citic Securities and China Securities International dropped out of software firm Semi-Tech Group's Hong Kong IPO amid staffing constraints

Amazon attracted $126B of orders for an upsized $37B US bond sale, with plans to raise another $12B in euro markets

Salesforce is planning to sell $20B-$25B of bonds to fund a buyback

Honeywell Aerospace raised $16B in a debut investment-grade bond sale

CVC's Global Sport Group was valued at $8.1B in a complex financing deal which will see KKR's insurance unit Global Atlantic and PIMCO inject $3.5B of debt; CVC failed to sell a large stake in GSG at a $10.4B valuation

Commodities trading giant Trafigura secured a new $3B credit facility to boost liquidity

Commodities trading giant Vitol is in talks to raise a $3B credit facility

THL and Linden-backed Smile Doctors is in talks refinance $2B of debt

Singapore's Sembcorp Industries is seeking a $2.1B loan to back its acquisition of Aussie power generator Alinta Energy 

Mining giant Rio Tinto secured $1.2B in financing to develop a lithium project in Argentina

Commodities trading giant Gunvor is seeking a $1B credit facility

Brazilian lender BRB plans to request a $637M loan from Brazil's credit guarantee fund FGC to support capitalization efforts

Private credit lenders including Ares, Blackstone, Oaktree, Thoma Bravo, HPS, and Antares provided an over $400M loan to support Blackstone-owned energy data platform Enverus's acquisition of AI-enabled utilities design automation platform Spatial Business Systems, three months after providing a $3B package 

Taiwan is considering selling $200M of bonds for the first time to finance overseas investments

Creditors allege a network of companies linked to collapsed UK mortgage lender MFS' owner was central to an alleged fraud causing a $1.8B shortfall; a court consequently placed eight companies into administration

Overdrive Capital, an affiliate of emissions control manufacturer Active Dynamics Group, agreed to acquire bankrupt auto parts supplier First Brands' Walbro fuel systems unit for $50M

Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer Raízen is nearing an out-of-court debt restructuring deal with creditors; Brazilian conglomerate Cosan exited talks

PE firm Stirling Square Capital Partners is facing off against lender Tikehau Capital over control of Italian bottle cap maker Tapí Group

Bain Capital raised $10.5B for its sixth Asia buyout fund

VC General Catalyst is in talks to raise $10B across several funds

VC​​ Spark Capital is seeking to raise $3B across new funds

MM PE firm Truelink Capital raised $2B for its second fund

Carlyle is working on a multibillion-dollar structured financing to seed its ninth flagship buyout fund and pay back money to LPs in its older funds

Growth equity investor Glade Brook Capital raised over $1B for a CV to acquire stakes in its 2021 strategic growth vintage 

France's BNP Paribas Asset Management raised $627M for a debut GP stakes fund

HOF QB Joe Montana's Liquid 2 Ventures is raising $275M across two new funds

Biotech VC Breakout Ventures launched a $114M AI-focused fund

Ex-a16z GP Michelle Volz raised a $50M debut fund for her new VC Pax Ventures 

A unit of SWF ADIA partnered with French PE firm Ardian to launch a real estate secondaries platform

Investment firm Cliffwater is in talks sell $1B of private credit assets in a secondaries deal

Oil trades are booming on 24/7 crypto exchange Hyperliquid

Senators try to unlock stalled crypto CLARITY Act with compromise on stablecoin yield

Hong Kong family offices are planning more crypto and private markets exposure

Binance founder CZ is now richer than Bill Gates

AI is no longer a standalone theme layered onto markets – it's becoming an operating condition that reshapes demand across sectors. But as AI adoption accelerates into 2026 and worldwide spending reaches a projected $2.5 trillion, not all exposure will be equal. Check out Mizuho's insights.

Read about the deleted tweet by energy secretary Chris Wright that sent oil markets on a wild ride.

FT interviewed oil trader Manny Newman for a BTS into one of the wildest days in oil market history.

Bloomberg published a deep dive into the scenes in private credit and how gate-crashers are suddenly forcing funds into a brutal spot.