All three major US indexes rose to ATHs on Friday on hopes for a ceasefire extension

Korea's KOSPI is up 100% YTD

Japan's Nikkei 225 is up 30% YTD

Oil sank to a six-week low on Friday

Aluminum backwardation is at the highest since 2007 as spreads tighten and inventories drop amid the Iran war

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

Just cast my ballot from New York. Who else is voting in the Los Angeles mayor elections this year?

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

J Pow say Fed credibility lost if president can fire officials (BBG)

Trump ended Iran meeting with no 'final determination' (CNBC)

South Korea export growth hit a four-decade high on AI boom (RT)

Canada entered a recession (RT) 

Wall Street risk rally powers past war stalemate (BBG)

Traders dump crash hedges as most-shorted stocks jump 30% (BBG)

Muni funds lure near-record cash as reinvestment season nears (BBG)

Japan used record $74B to support Yen last month (BBG)

AI has made memory chips more valuable than oil (WSJ)

BlackRock scales back equities after 'generational' earnings (BBG)

EQT partnered with Google to accelerate AI adoption at portcos (RT)

Windows will debut a PC powered by Nvidia chips (AX)

US halts Nvidia AI chip shipments to Chinese firms outside China (RT)

Peter Thiel relocated to Argentina (NYT)

Trump wants to speed up college M&A (BBG) 

Ex-Barclays CEO Jes Staley will testify in Congress on Epstein ties (FT)

Cools your bed up to 20ºF below room temperature

Detects and reduces snoring by 45%

Increases daytime energy levels by up to 34%

$42B Europe-listed Universal Music Group rejected an unsolicited offer from Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square as too low

Italian lender MPS is not holding ‌merger talks with $24B-listed peer Banco BPM and is focused on integrating ​recently acquired Mediobanca

Pfizer and China's Innovent Biologics agreed to a $10.5B global licensing and collaboration deal to develop 12 early-stage cancer medicines

Hong Kong conglomerate Jardine Matheson is considering selling more assets following a $10B deal spree

Stone Ridge Asset ‌Management offered to acquire Marcellus shale assets from Devon Energy for $8B, which would be supported by the largest ever ABS financing in US O&G history

Berkshire Hathaway will acquire home builder Taylor Morrison Home in a $6.8B cash deal

Defense giant CSG is still pursuing a 'transformative' deal for a stake in Franco-German tank maker KNDS ahead of its $6B Europe IPO

Billionaire Vincent Tan is considering selling his 30% stake in Prudential Assurance Malaysia, a unit of UK-based insurance giant Prudential, at a $5B valuation

Norwegian jamming-resistant radio maker Radionor Communications is exploring a sale at a potential $4.5B valuation

CVC will acquire the food ingredients business of International ‌Flavors & Fragrances for $4.3B, including debt

Investment firm Castlelake is considering a takeover of $4B-listed European budget airline EasyJet

Mercedes and team owner Toto Wolff ended their bid to buy a 24% stake in F1 team Alpine from Otro Capital at a $3B valuation on valuation concerns

Mexican REIT Fibra MTY will acquire peer Fibra Macquarie in a $1.7B deal

KarpReilly and Enlightened Hospitality Investments-owned ice cream chain Salt & Straw is ​exploring a sale at an over $200M valuation

Wagner College acquired the Staten Island campus of St. John's University for $30M

Alpac Capital agreed to buy Eastern Europe-focused Adria News Network from United Group

LongRange Capital is in exclusive talks to acquire Pizza Hut from Yum! Brands, beating out bidders including Sycamore Partners

Chevron filed an official request to take over a 70% stake ​from Greece's HelleniQ Energy ​in a Greek offshore block 

Vast, a Chinese 3D-modeling startup founded by a Gen-Z gamer, raised a $200M round at a $1B valuation led by Ince Capital and a VC fund backed by China Life Insurance

Multiverse Computing, a Spanish quantum computing and AI software startup, is pursuing a $580M Series C at a $1.75B valuation from Spain's SETT and others

XCENA, a memory-centric AI chip startup, raised a $135M Series B at a $570M valuation co-led by Altinum and IMM Investment

UK AI lab Inherent raised a $50M seed round co-led by Index Ventures and Radical Ventures

Picogrid, an open integration layer for modern military systems, raised a $45M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners

Pax, an AI-native public safety company, a raised a $40M seed round co-led by Greenoaks and Benchmark

Drafted, an AI home-design startup, raised a $16M seed round from Buckley Ventures, Y Combinator, and others

Khloud, Khloé Kardashian's protein-rich popcorn brand, raised a $15M funding round led by K5 Global 

OpenAI discussed adding Citigroup and JPMorgan to its lead underwriting group of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley for its IPO which could fetch a $1T+ valuation

Activist Voss Capital urged $60B-listed utility giant Sempra to spin off its Oncor electricity unit

$34B Hong Kong-listed Chinese AI startup MiniMax is preparing a China listing

Honeywell-backed quantum computing firm Quantinuum is weighing boosting its IPO size and price above $1B to an over $12.7B valuation

France took a ‌1.33% stake worth $2.8B in TotalEnergies to become the tenth-largest shareholder

Saudi's Mutlaq Al-Ghowairi Contracting is seeking to raise $800M in Saudi's first major IPO this year

Malaysia's largest pharma chain Big Caring Group is seeking to raise $750M in Malaysia's biggest IPO of the past decade

Blackstone-backed adtech Liftoff Mobile is seeking to raise $420M at a $3.6B valuation in a renewed IPO attempt

Chinese fried chicken cutlet chain Zhengxin is exploring raising $300M in a Hong Kong IPO

Activist Toms Capital built a significant stake in ‌McCormick amid its $45B merger with Unilever's foods business

Paramount Skydance is preparing to sell $50B of debt for its $110B takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery

Italian lender Intesa Sanpaolo arranged two SRTs tied to US corporate loans and ESG corporate loans worth $4.8B

Aussie date center operator IREN raised $3.6B in debt to purchase Nvidia chips to provide computing capacity to Microsoft

Apollo-backed photo-sharing site Shutterfly is raising $1.9B in junk debt for a refinancing

Worthington Steel raised $1.4B in junk debt led by Wells Fargo to help fund its $2.4B acquisition of German metals company Klöeckner

Lenders to Oaktree-backed luxury cruise line Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection agreed to push back repayment dates and relax terms on $1.5B of debt

EM macro hedge fund Broad Reach will close to new capital after AUM hit $3B

Healthcare-focused PE firm Ampersand Capital Partners raised $1.5B for its twelfth flagship fund

EM distressed debt investor Shiprock Capital Management closed to new capital after AUM hit $1B 

Elham, the private credit arm of Asian PE firm Hillhouse, plans to raise over $600M for its second APAC-focused fund

7:00 PM

​10:00 PM

Jamie Dimon ripped Coinbase CEO as 'full of sh*t' in anti-CLARITY Act push

SpaceX hype spurs crypto shadow market for pre-IPO bets

Coinbase and Kalshi launched regulated perpetual crypto futures

Crypto treasuries turn to risky equity in drive to raise cash

Sam Ro shared an interesting take on why the stock market often defies common wisdom.

Also, just how much is AI driving the stock market.