US markets remained closed yesterday in observance of MLK Day

US stocks closed mostly flat on Friday as traders digested Trump's comments on global politics and the Fed chair succession 

Europe's Stoxx 600 fell 1.2% yesterday in its worst day in two months 

Canada's TSX index hit a fresh ATH

Global corporate yield spreads are at 100 bps at their lowest since 2007

Dollar fell 0.4% vs euro 

State Street missed Q4 earnings estimates on higher expenses but posted record revenue on strength across investment services, management, and markets (WSJ)

PNC Financial beat Q4 revenue estimates as capital markets and advisory fees jumped 40% on stronger MM financing and deal activity (BBG)

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

An important situation brewing in the background, with once-favorite Hassett fading fast

Track and trade live odds on Polymarket

TCI broke Citadel's record with $18.9B hedge fund profits (BBG)

US will raise tariffs on eight European nations until Greenland is sold (CNBC)

'Weaponizing' $10T of US assets is tough ask for Europe (BBG)

US wants nations to pay $1B for 'Peace-as-a-Service' (CNBC)

BlackRock's bond CIO Rick Rieder is gaining traction for Fed Chair bid (BBG)

Trump is reluctant to nominate Kevin Hassett for Fed chair (BBG)

Trump blasted Dimon and threatened to sue JPMorgan for 'debanking' (BBG)

China GDP grew 5% last year on an exports boom (CNBC)

China's $7T cash pile is shifting into stocks and gold (BBG)

'New regime' of volatility is pushing clients to private markets (FT)

LPs pulled $7B from biggest private credit funds in Q4 (FT)

Private markets secondaries deals surged to a record $226B last year (BBG)

SWFs join clamor for EM private credit (BBG)

Dealmakers see more retail M&A and IPOs after last year's tariff chaos (RT)

Equity funds saw the largest weekly inflow since October (RT)

Hedge funds slashed bullish silver wagers to a two-year low (BBG)

Hedge funds closed bullish euro bets amid US-Greenland threats (BBG)

Hedge funds boosted yen shorts by the most since 2015 (BBG)

CEO revenue confidence hit a five-year low (RT)

German investments in US halved in 2025 (RT)

SRT boom offers costly lifeline to banks shedding risky CRE debt (BBG)

JPMorgan became the world's biggest active ETF issuer (BBG)

JPMorgan formed a new advisory group to focus on private capital (WSJ)

Jane Street's India trading profits soared 500% before ban (BBG)

OpenAI hit $20B ARR in 2025 (TC)

Musk is seeking $135B in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft (BBG)

Commodities trader Mercuria paid 0.1% tax on $1.3B profits (BBG)

Valentino Garavani passed away (NYT)

Regulators rejected Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern's $71.5B merger application as incomplete and invited a revised submission

Activist hedge fund Elliott opposed Toyota's revised $39B take-private offer for Toyota Industries as still undervalued at an argued 40% discount 

US extended Russian oil firm Lukoil's deadline to sell ~$22B in sanctioned global assets to to February 28; Carlyle, Chevron, Quantum Capital Group, IHC, Exxon, MOL, and Midad bid while Gunvor and Xtellus were blocked

Shell and Mitsubishi are exploring sales of their 30% and 15% respective stakes in the $29B LNG Canada for a combined ~$23B, including debt and Phase 2 commitments

Swiss insurer Zurich Insurance submitted a $10.3B take-private bid to acquire UK specialist insurer Beazley, representing a 56% premium

PE firm Hellman & Friedman is exploring a $9B-$10B sale of medical device firm Cordis

Berkshire-backed Japanese trading house Mitsubishi will acquire US shale gas producer Aethon Energy Management for $7.5B, including debt

Germany agreed to take 25.1% stake in Dutch state-owned power grid TenneT's German unit for $6.7B

Malaysian property and construction conglomerate Sunway's $2.7B bid for rival IJM is drawing investor concerns over dilution

Worthington Steel agreed to buy German peer Kloeckner & Co. in a $2.4B take-private, representing a 28% premium

German chemical giant Henkel is in talk to acquire Dutch peer Stahl from French PE firm Wendel for $2.3B

Aircraft components maker TransDigm agreed to acquire commercial aerospace aftermarket parts manufacturers Jet Parts Engineering and Victor Sierra Aviation from PE firm Vance Street Capital for $2.2B cash

Micron signed a LOI to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing for $1.8B

Shareholders including Alantra are weighing a sale of 10%-30% of Spanish electronic lock maker Salto Systems at a potential $1.2B valuation

Philippine telecom infrastructure firm PhilTower's $1B sale stalled over valuation differences between shareholders Macquarie, Manila Electric, and Stonepeak and potential buyers

Global shipping company Diana Shipping plans a proxy fight to replace rival Genco's entire six-member board days after its $890M takeover bid was rejected; Diana owns 15% of Genco

FitzWalter Capital raised its take-private bid for UK online auction operator Auction Technology Group by 11% to $660M after repeated rejections

Brazilian oil firm Brava Energia bought a Malaysian state-owned O&G giant PETRONAS' stakes in two offshore fields for $450M

Mexican conglomerate Grupo Carso acquired the remaining 50% stake in Lukoil's Fieldwood Mexico assets for $270M

Google is in talks with Stonepeak-backed broadband operator Radiate to set up a JV to hold the companies' fiber assets

Film production house North Road is in talks to merge with with French media company Mediawan in a cash-and-stock deal worth several hundred million dollars

Investment firm Toscafund and other minority shareholders are exploring a sale of Portuguese insurer Caravela Seguros

Anthropic is seeking to raise a $25B round at a $350B valuation led by Coatue and GIC with new participation from Sequoia 

ClickHouse, a real-time analytics and AI data platform, raised a $400M Series D at a $15B valuation led by Dragoneer

Securities and derivatives broker Clear Street raised a round at a $12B valuation led by Baillie Gifford and SBI Holdings ahead of an IPO

Mal, an AI-native Islamic digital bank startup, raised a $230M seed round led by BlueFive Capital  

Rare-earth magnet startup Noveon Magnetics raised a $215M Series C led by One Investment Management 

Interstellar Technologies, a Japanese small-launch startup, raised a $130M Series F led by Woven

Tulip, an AI-native no-code frontline operations platform, raised a $120M Series D led by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Fanvue, an AI-powered creator monetization startup, raised a $22M Series A led by Inner Circle

European defense giant Czechoslovak Group may launch an accelerated Amsterdam IPO at a $29B valuation

Car glass repair firm Belron is in early talk for a US or Amsterdam IPO at a potential $28B valuation

UK gas station operator EG Group is lining up banks for a US IPO that could fetch a $9B valuation

$37B-China listed pork giant Muyuan is gauging interest for a $1.5B Hong Kong listing

AE Industrial Partners-backed defense firm York Space Systems is seeking to raise $545M at a $4.25B valuation in an IPO

Fidelity, Chinese tech giant Tencent, and SWF Temasek are set to anchor Chinese snack retailer Busy Ming's Hong Kong IPO, which could raise up to $500M

Apax Partners and KKR-backed education technology firm Cengage is weighing an IPO that could raise $500M

General Atlantic-backed Indian specialty eye-care chain ASG Hospital hired five banks for a $500M India IPO

Kenya plans to raise a record $825M in an IPO of a state-run Kenya Pipeline Co.

Brookfield-backed Indian renewable energy firm Clean Max plans to reduce its IPO offering from $575M to $400M

Eye care-focused biopharma firm SpyGlass filed for an IPO

Energy infrastructure services firm Solv Energy filed for an IPO

Belgian immune system-focused biotech AgomAb filed for a US IPO

CD&R and TPG-backed veterinary tech company Covetrus is in talks to raise $2.5B from private credit firms including Blue Owl to help fund a refinancing and M&A

Indonesian SWF Danantara is weighing a $1.2B patriot bond sale

Benin is set to raise $1B in a dollar-denominated sukuk bond sale 

Cable company Cable One is in talks with Truist for a $1B debt package to refinance $575M in bonds and fund its full acquisition of Mega Broadband

Exclusive hangars builder Sky Harbour is seeking to raise $100M in munis

Malaysia is planning its first dollar bond sale since 2021

A Venezuela creditor group is hiring a financial advisor to advance a $60B debt restructuring

Fortress-backed distressed Florida high-speed rail Brightline skipped its second interest payment on $1.2B in subordinate munis

Summit Properties won court approval for its $450M acquisition of Pinnacle Group's bankrupt NYC apartment portfolio

Canada's Lupaka Gold Corp. will attempt to seize Peru state-owned assets including Petroperu, ships, real estate, and sovereign bond payments unless Peru makes prompt payment of a $67M arbitration award

Chemicals firm Trinseo hired Centerview and Latham & Watkins to prepare for negotiations with creditors, who tapped Lazard and Gibson Dunn

Bonds of bankruptcy luxury retail Saks that vulture funds scooped are trading at 1¢

European PE firm CVC and insurer AIG agreed a $3.5B investing partnership 

CBRE Investment Management raised $1.6B for a global secondaries fund

Dolomite Capital, the European credit focused manager spun out from US hedge fund Taconic Capital, raised $200M in seed funding from seed FOF Stable Asset Management to debut with $1.3B 

UK infrastructure investor Stafford Capital Partners raised over $1.1B for its fifth flagship secondaries infrastructure fund

UK credit investor Alcentra is seeking to raise a $700M for a third European special situations fund

Germany-based Digital Transformation Capital Partners is raising $580M for Europe's largest VC fund dedicated to defense startups

Wealth manager Westwood Holdings raise over $300M for its second energy secondaries fund

Verdict Capital, the VC firm of ex-General Catalyst exec Niko Bonatsos, is raising $250M-$300M to debut

VZVC, the VC firm of ex-a16z partner Vijay Pande, is raising a debut fund to focus on AI and consumer health

Bitcoin ETFs saw the biggest inflow since October's crypto crash

NYSE will launch a 24/7 trading platform for blockchain-based securities

Reuters published five charts summarizing Wall Street banks' strong Q4 earnings.

Bloomberg published a deep dive into Korea's race to catch up with US and China on AI. In other words, AI Squid Game.