Fed Up With the Fed

Author

Litquidity Capital
July 25, 2025

Together with

Good Morning,

Trump met with J Pow amid high tensions, Trump had some encouraging words for Musk, American Eagle's stock rallied on a Sydney Sweeney campaign, Blackstone is readying companies for IPOs, and Epstein's birthday book included letters from Apollo founder Leon Black.

J Pow had the most priceless reaction to Trump's statements and this one-minute clip sums it up perfectly.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 7/24/2025 market close.

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Markets

  • US stocks closed mixed yesterday as traders digested a slew of corporate earnings

    • S&P and Nasdaq hit fresh ATHs

    • VIX index fell to its lowest since February

  • UK's FTSE 100 hit a fresh ATH

Earnings

  • Blackstone beat Q2 distributable earnings estimates driven by strong profits from retail and evergreen funds; AUM topped $1.2T and the firm sees its strongest deal pipeline strongest since 2021 as it prepares portfolio companies for IPOs (RT)

  • Lazard beat Q2 profit estimates on record dealmaking advisory revenue (RT)

  • Intel beat on Q2 revenue estimates but posted a widening loss as it undergoes a massive turnaround effort under a new CEO; the firm announced drastic cost cuts while completing most of its planned 22% layoffs (CNBC)

  • American Airlines beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates but lowered its FY profit outlook and issued a weaker-than-expected Q3 forecast, citing consumer weakness, flat corporate travel demand and operational problems from a series of storms (CNBC)

  • Nasdaq beat Q2 estimates on success in large-cap listings while also signaling improved IPO market momentum (RT)

  • Honeywell issued a Q2 beat-and-raise amid strong order backlog and resilience against tariffs (BBG)

  • What we're watching this week:  

    • Today: Booz Allen Hamilton

  • Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

  • Here me out: Joe Biden

  • Trade your predictions on a range of events, only on Kalshi. Sign up with code LIT and get a $20 bonus when you trade $100.

Headline Roundup

  • Trump and J Pow sparred in rare Fed visit (CNBC)

  • ECB held rates steady at 2% (CNBC)

  • Citigroup expanded research to private companies (BBG)

  • US jobless claims fell to the lowest since April (BBG)

  • US business activity growth hit a YTD high (BBG)

  • Eurozone business activity growth hit an eleven-month high (RT)

  • Singapore SWF GIC signals caution on private credit (FT)

  • Meme stock surge underlines market froth (RT)

  • A penny/meme stock just made up 15% of US trading volume (BBG)

  • US green project cancellations hit $22B YTD (BBG)

  • Over 40% of Americans saw declines in real pay (BBG)

  • ~30% of German companies postponed US investments (RT)

  • Sydney Sweeney campaign fuels American Eagle stock rally (CNBC)

  • Proxy firm Glass Lewis sued Texas over DEI and ESG limits (FT)

  • Nvidia AI chips worth $1B entered China despite US curbs (FT)

  • 'Head of Macro' James Fishback sued the Fed (BBG)

  • Trump wants Musk and his companies to thrive in US (RT)

  • Musk's Starlink suffered a rare global outage (RT)

  • Musk said Vine will return in AI form (RT)

  • College grads are being paid up to $150 / hour to train AI models (BBG)

  • Epstein birthday book included letters from Apollo founder Leon Black, Bill Clinton, and Vera Wang (WSJ)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Union Pacific confirmed advanced talks with Norfolk Southern for a merger that could form a ~$200B transcontinental rail giant, the industry's largest ever

  • Pinnacle Financial Partners and Synovus Financial agreed to merge in an $8.6B all-stock deal to form one of the largest regional banks in the south 

  • Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com is in advanced talks to acquire German electronics retailer Ceconomy for ~$2.6B, at a 23% premium

  • Healthcare software company Waystar agreed to acquire Advent-backed Iodine Software for ~$1.3B, including debt

  • European PE firm Cinven emerged as the leading bidder for Ardian-backed French data services firm Artefact, which could fetch a ~$1.2B valuation

  • India's Torrent Power is in talks to acquire Indian conglomerate Larsen & Toubro's thermal power unit for ~$1B, including debt

  • Canada's CPPIB will exit its JV with India mall operator Phoenix Mills in a $631M all-cash deal

  • Food giant Nestlé is considering selling its underperforming vitamin brands amid declining sales

  • Seven undisclosed parties are interested in acquiring German defense giant Rheinmetall's civilian business, which is no longer considered core amid a strategic shift towards defense

  • Italian food-and-drinks group NewPrinces agreed to acquire French supermarket giant Carrefour's Italian operations

  • Global sports investment firm Harburg Group acquired Saudi soccer club Al-Kholood, marking the first foreign ownership deal in Saudi's sports sector

  • LVMH-backed magazine Paris Match agreed to acquire an 80% stake in French photo and video agency Abaca

  • Germany is considering acquiring a minority stake in Franco-German tank maker KNDS

  • Mining giant Rio Tinto is considering a sale of its titanium unit ahead of a restructuring by its incoming CEO 

VC

  • Armada, a startup building modular data centers, raised a $131M round from Pinegrove, Veriten, and Glade Brook

  • HeroDevs, a provider of security and compliance solutions for deprecated open source software, raised a $125M growth round led by PSG

  • Yieldstreet, a private markets investment platform, raised a $77M round led by Tarsadia Investments

  • AI contract review startup LegalOn raised a $50M Series C led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives

  • Compensation management platform BetterComp raised a $33M Series A led by Ten Coves Capital

  • Stellaria, a French startup developing a molten salt nuclear reactor, raised a $27M round led by At One Ventures and Supernova Invest

  • Bitzero, a company redefining sustainable blockchain and data centers, raised $25M in funding

  • Lightyear, an AI-powered investment platform, raised a $23M Series B led by Nordic Ninja

  • Memories.ai, an AI platform to process video and extract information, raised an $8M seed round led by Susa Ventures

  • IdentifAI, an AI startup that detects synthetic images, videos, or audio, raised a $5.8M round led by United Ventures

  • Brand technology platform Queen One raised $5.5M in a friends and family funding round led by Charge VC, Inspired Capital, and others

  • Volca, an AI-powered marketing platform for home services businesses, raised a $5.5M seed round led by Pathlight Ventures

IPOs / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Michael Saylor's Strategy launched a $2.8B preferred stock sale promising a 9% annual payout with no end date

  • SoftBank-backed mobile advertising platform InMobi aims to raise up to $1B in an India IPO

  • Insurance data analytics platform Accelerant surged 26% in its trading debut after raising $724M in an upsized IPO

  • Medtech firm Shoulder Innovations is seeking to raise up to $105M at a $418M valuation in an IPO

  • REIT GO Residential is set to raise $410M in Canada's largest IPO since November

SPAC

  • TON Foundation and Kingsway Capital Partners are seeking to raise $400M for a crypto treasury company to hold Toncoin

Debt 

  • Apollo is leading an $812M private credit deal alongside KKR to support Bridgepoint Group's $1B LBO of UK dental chain Mydentist from Palamon Capital Partner

  • Carlyle is acquiring $250M of farm loans from FarmOp Capital in a private credit deal amid rising bankruptcies in the agriculture sector

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

  • Chinese developer Country Garden agreed to key restructuring terms with a group of bank creditors, easing the path for an overall debt deal

Fundraising / Secondaries

  • Blackstone plans to raise $22B for its tenth flagship PE secondaries fund

  • Prominent VC investor Elad Gil is raising a $1.5B fund, the largest ever for a solo GP

  • Specialty insurance firm Arch Capital Group is in talks to sell over $350M worth of stakes in BlackRock funds to secondary funds including Ares, including $200M investment in BlackRock's APAC private credit fund

  • Australian life sciences VC firm Brandon Capital raised $295M for its sixth fund

  • O&G-focused PE firm High River Resources Management raised $205M for its second fund

Crypto Sum Snapshot

  • Luxury real estate brokerage Christie's International will allow buyers to acquire real estate using crypto 

Subscribe to Crypto Sum for the full stories on everything crypto!

Exec’s Picks

Finance & Startup Recruiting 💼

Litney Partners

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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.

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