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Good Morning,

EU officials raided Nasdaq and Deutsche Börse, big hedge funds are tightening their grip on industry AUM, Trafigura named their third-ever CEO, and KKR's co-head of PE is pushing for workers' ownership in companies.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks rose as markets shook off weak consumer confidence data

  • S&P and Dow closed at fresh records

  • Swaps markets see a 50% chance of another 50 bps Fed rate cut 

• China's CSI 300 rallied 4.3% for its best day in four years on stimulus measures

• France-Spain 10Y spread converged to 0 bps at 2.98% for the first time since 2008

• Dollar continued to fall after three-straight weeks of decline

• Yuan surged to a sixteen-month high 

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Micron

  • Thursday: Costco, CarMax

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• A top KKR exec is pushing for workers' stake in US companies (WSJ)

• US consumer confidence dropped by the most in three years (CNBC)

• Germany, Canada join US and UK with un-inverting yield curves (BBG)

• OPEC expects oil demand to continue climbing over next two decades (WSJ)

• EU raided Nasdaq and Deutsche Börse in antitrust investigation (FT)

• Big hedge funds' share of industry hit an eight-year high (RT)

• US bond ETF launches are up 50% YoY (RT)

• Trafigura named Richard Holtum as new CEO (BBG)

• Legal & General named Eric Adler as CEO of new asset management arm (FT)

• Commerzbank named Bettina Orlopp as new CEO amid UniCredit threat (FT)

• China threatened to blacklist Calvin Klein over cotton boycott (FT)

• DOJ pushes companies to consider AI risks (WSJ)

• Spain called for disaster 'pause clauses' for developing nation debt (FT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• PE firms CD&R and PAI Partners made binding bids for Sanofi's $16.7B consumer health division (BBG)  

• Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners agreed to take private collaboration software provider Smartsheet for ~$8.4B (BBG) 

• KKR and Singapore SWF GIC are seeking to sell a majority stake in Philippine hospital group Metro Pacific Health at a $3.2B valuation (RT) 

• Italy is preparing to sell a 15% stake in postal service Poste Italiane for $2.7B (BBG) 

• Macquarie Asset Management agreed to acquire a minority stake in D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments for $1.73B (BBG) 

• Abu Dhabi state-owned clean energy firm Masdar will buy Spanish peer Saeta Yield from Brookfield at a $1.4B valuation (FT) 

• London Stock Exchange Group is seeking to sell its 4.9% stake in Belgian financial services company Euroclear for $670M (RT) 

• UK's NewRiver REIT will acquire smaller rival Capital & Regional in a $196M cash-and-stock deal (RT) 

• Octopus Energy Generation acquired clean energy storage developer Exagen (RT) 

• Diamondback Energy and Kinetik acquired a combined 30% stake in Epic Midstream unit Epic Crude (BBG)

VC

• Fitness equipment startup EGYM raised a $200M Series G at a $1.2B+ valuation from L Catterton and Meritech (TC)

• Italian payroll automation startup Jet HR raised a $12.5M seed round led by Picus Capital (EU)

• Nmbr, an embedded payroll software provider, raised a $5.6M seed round from Panache Ventures, Golden Ventures, and more (BW)

• Desia, an AI system for investment professionals, raised a $3.3M pre-seed round led by Dig Ventures (TFN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• AI services firm Fractal Analytics is considering raising $500M at a $3.5B valuation in a Mumbai IPO (BBG) 

• Hawaiian Electric Industries plans to raise $500M through a stock offering to help fund its Maui wildfire settlement (RT)

• Bain-backed Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia scrapped plans for a $500M local IPO amid a market slump (RT) 

• FrontView REIT is seeking to raise $277M at a ~$600M valuation in a US IPO (BBG)  

• Warburg Pincus sold its entire 8.6% stake in Indian car sales platform CarTrade for $45M (RT)

Debt

• Blue Owl Capital led the $3.2B private credit deal to back Blackstone and Vista's $8.4B LBO of Smartsheet (BBG)

• Saudi Aramco plans to raise $3B in a dollar-denominated bond sale (BBG) 

• Telecom provider Windstream launched a $1.3B debt sale to refinance existing loans (BBG) 

• Indian lender IIFL Finance plans to raise $1.2B in bonds (RT) 

• Investment firm Castlelake raised over $1B in bank financing for its purchase of over 60 aircraft (BBG) 

• India's Shriram Finance plans to raise $500M via dollar-denominated bonds (RT) 

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• Complete Solaria won bankruptcy court approval to acquire rival SunPower's solar panel business for $45M (BBG)  

Fundraising

• HSBC Asset Management plans to raise $1.1B for a NAV financing fund to help PE firms borrow against their portfolios (BBG) 

Crypto Corner

• Diddy and SBF are sharing a room in jail (MSN)

• Caroline Ellison was sentenced to two years for role in FTX collapse (AX)

• SEC chair Gensler faced heat in Congress over crypto regulation (TB)

• BNY Mellon is planning to launch crypto ETF custody services (BBG) 

• BlackRock sees Bitcoin as a 'risk-off' asset (BBG)

Exec’s Picks

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• Risk of Ruin Podcast shared a simple yet incredible example on why it's so hard to be a real contrarian.

• WSJ shared some insightful charts on how markets have historically reacted to falling rates.

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