US stocks ticked higher as investors awaited crucial Big Tech earnings, J Pow's final Fed rate decision, and updates from a US-Iran stalemate

MSCI EM stocks index recovered all Iran war losses to hit a fresh ATH

German power prices plunged to record lows as solar generation surged 

Verizon missed Q1 estimates due to costs from a January outage but raised FY guidance after adding wireless subscribers in Q1 for the first time since 2013 (WSJ)

Domino's pizza missed Q1 same-store sales estimates and lowered its FY forecast due to weak consumer sentiment from spiking fuel prices, and stiff competition from Papa John's and Pizza Hut (CNBC)

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

Anthropic shares are already trading at a $1T valuation in secondary markets

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

PE slowdown is tilting power in favor of LPs (BBG)

PE LPs raise new conflict concerns over sweetheart secondaries deals (FT)

Hedge funds are using the US stock rally to offload risk (BBG)

Fund finance market surpassed $1T this year (RT)

Investment grade bond market saw its busiest day since early-March (BBG)

Clearlake LPs raise 'distraction' concerns following co-founder's MLB team purchase (BBG)

Jain's Millennium homecoming shows multi-strats are hard to clone (BBG)

Quant pioneer Martin Lueck warns against handing over trading to AI (FT)

Goldman Sachs leads record yuan borrowing by US banks (FT)

Musk v. Altman trial officially began (CNBC)

OpenAI is missing key internal revenue and user targets (WSJ)

OpenAI is working on an iPhone rival (TC)

OpenAI and Microsoft restructured partnership to end exclusivity (TC)

Google staff signed a petition to block US military from using its AI (BBG)

Forvis Mazars cut 3% of US jobs (WSJ)

Rogers offered to buyout 50% of 20k workforce (BBG)

Taylor Swift filed to trademark her voice and NIL amid AI deepfakes (RT)

Paramount and Warner Bros will be ~50% owned by gulf SWFs following the $110B merger

Ports operator China Merchants Group is in talks to join BlackRock-owned GIP and Italy's Terminal Investment's consortium seeking to buy dozens of global ports worth $23B from Hong Kong infrastructure conglomerate CK Hutchison to help peer China COSCO Shipping finance the deal

Shell agreed to acquire Canadian shale producer ARC Resources in a $16.4B cash-and-stock deal, including debt, at a 27% premium in its biggest acquisition in a decade

Heir Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio agreed to buy out two of his ‌siblings in Delfin, the family holding company that controls $110B-listed Italian eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica, for $11.7B to raise his stake to 37.5%

India's Sun Pharmaceutical Industries will acquire US-based pharma group Organon in an $11.75B all-cash deal at a 24% premium

Numerous investor groups expressed interest to form new NBA teams in Vegas and Seattle at over $10B valuations

Stonepeak Partners and Bernhard Capital Partners will acquire Louisiana utility Cleco Power from a consortium led by Australia's Macquarie at a $6B valuation

Aussie asset manager and major shareholder IFM Investors launched a $5.3B takeover bid for toll road operator Atlas Arteria at an 18% premium

Italian drugmaker Angelini Pharma is exploring an acquisition of $3.6B US-listed Catalyst Pharmaceuticals

Japanese investment bank Daiwa Securities Group will buy ORIX's banking unit for $2.3B in its largest acquisition in two decades

Eli Lilly agreed to buy cancer-focused Ajax Therapeutics for $2.3B cash

China blocked Meta's $2B acquisition of AI startup Manus

Apollo agreed to buy the auto interiors business of French automotive supplier Forvia for $2.1B, including debt

THL Partners agreed to acquire pharma services company Celerion from HIG Capital for $1.8B

European PE firm Astorg will acquire the microbiology business of biotech giant Thermo Fisher Scientific for $1.1B

Apollo took a 30% stake in Swiss sisters-led dental firm vVardis at an over $1B valuation

Real estate platform Real Brokerage will acquire brokerage franchisor Re/Max Holdings in an $880M cash-and-stock deal, including debt

Critical Metals agreed to buy European Lithium in an $835M all-stock deal

German energy giant E.ON is is advanced talks to acquire UK supplier Ovo for $810M 

Drug royalty investor Ligand Pharmaceuticals agreed to acquire peer Xoma Royalty for $740M cash

UK PE firm Bridgepoint agreed to buy a majority stake in German identity security firm iC Consult from Carlyle at a ~$500M valuation

Czech ​defense group CSG will set up a JV worth hundreds of millions of dollars between its Excalibur Army Azerbaijani subsidiary and ​a local partner

Mexican mining and railroad conglomerate Grupo Mexico will merge its electricity generation operations with Saavi Energia, a unit of BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners

Carlyle co-founder Bill Conway is backing new venture Kitebrook Infra to procure land and power in Norway and sell assets to data center developers and tech firms

Ineffable Intelligence, the UK AI startup of ex-DeepMind scientist David Silver, raised a $1.1B seed round at a $5.1B valuation led Sequoia and Lightspeed

Lithuanian secondhand marketplace Vinted sold $1B worth of secondary shares led by EQT at a $9.4B valuation

Avoca, an AI platform for the services economy, raised over $125M across seed, Series A, and Series B rounds at a $1B valuation led by Meritech and General Catalyst

Sereact, a German robotics startup, raised a $110M Series B led by Headline

Tinder-owned Match Group will invest $100M in gay dating app Sniffies

Quantum Art, an Israeli trapped-ion quantum computing company, raised a $40M Series A extension led by Bedford Ridge Capital

SquareMind, a French AI and robotics dermatology company, raised $18M including a previously undisclosed pre-Series A led by Sonder Capital

QuoIntelligence, a European threat intelligence company, raised an $8.5M Series A led by Elevator Ventures

Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square and its new closed-end fund Pershing Square USA raised a combined $5B in an IPO at the low end of the targeted fundraising range

Chinese EV battery giant CATL is seeking to raise $5B in Hong Kong's biggest share placement this year

Space surveillance and analytics startup Hawkeye 360 is seeking to raise $415M at a $2.4B valuation in an IPO

General Atlantic-backed Indian digital insurer Acko Technology & Services is seeking to raise $350M at a $2.5B valuation in an India IPO

Power producer Engie Brasil Energia is preparing a $2B equity offering to help finance a 40% acquisition of power plant Jirau Energia from Engie Brasil Energia's controlling shareholder Engie Brasil Participacoes

Organic juice maker Suja Life is looking to raise $213M at a $930M valuation in its IPO

Depression-focused biotech Seaport Therapeutics is seeking to raise $212M at a $912M valuation in an IPO

Novo-backed coagulation-focused biotech Hemab Therapeutics is seeking to raise $212M at a $705M valuation in an IPO

Activist Starboard Value built a significant stake in industrials supplier Flowserve

Polish AI-powered technical support platform CADV Ventures will merge with Miluna Acquisition Corp in a $410M deal

India's Sun Pharmaceutical Industries lined up a short-term loan from MUFG, JPMorgan, and Citigroup to help finance its $12B acquisition of Organon

French lender SocGen is weighing an SRT tied to over $10.5B of loans

HSBC, JPMorgan, and two Kuwaiti lenders are syndicating a $6B financing package meant to back a potential $7B purchase of a stake in Kuwait Petroleum Corporation's crude oil pipeline network

Intel attracted $50B of investor orders for its $6.5B bond sale to help fund a $14.2B buyback of half of an Ireland manufacturing plant that it previously sold to Apollo

Walmart sold $4.25B of high-grade bonds

Banks launched a ~$2.5B loan sale to fund Carlyle and SWF QIA's $9.1B LBO of German chemical giant BASF's coatings business

Hong Kong's airport operator Airport Authority plans to raise $1.9B in its only public bond sale this year

Bank of Montreal is leading a $1.8B debt deal to back industrial manufacturer Brady Corp's $1.4B acquisition of the productivity solutions and services business of industrials conglomerate Honeywell International

A project of digital infrastructure developer Hut 8 sold $3.25B of investment grade bonds to fund a data center tied to Google

Chinese aluminum giant Hongqiao priced its $1.5B convertible bond sale at a 25% premium, near the low end of a marketed range

American Airlines sold $1.14B of aircraft-backed securities

UAE lender Emirates NBD is selling ‌dollar AT1 bonds in public markets in the first by a Gulf issuer since the Iran war

Budget airlines including Frontier and Avelo are seeking $2.5B in US government assistance in exchange for equity warrants amid bankrupt Spirit Airlines' talks for an equity bailout

Struggling teen budget jewelry retailer Claire's will shut all UK stores in its second bankruptcy after Modella Capital failed to turn around the business

Bain Capital and Cinven-backed specialty chemical firm Arxada won creditor support to delay debt repayments

Germany could kick off a re-privatization process via sale or IPO for bailed-out utility Uniper this summer as a merger ​with bailed-out peer SEFE becomes less likely

Canada launched new SWF Canada Strong Fund with $18B

Jain Global, the multi-strat that launched with a record $5.3B in 2024, will return cash to investors to manage money exclusively for Millennium

Energy-focused PE firm EIV Capital raised $1.1B across its latest flagship fund and a new upstream O&G fund

Boaz Weinstein's activist hedge fund Saba Capital plans to raise $1B for a new fund to buy up souring private credit BDCs

Hedge fund Redwood Capital Management is seeking to raise $1B for a fund to hold illiquid credit investments with long time horizons

PE firm Emerald Lake raised $800M for its latest fund

Canadian biotech investor Lumira Ventures reached a first close for a targeted $200M fifth fund

French PE firm Abenex raised $90M for its targeted $175M Industries 9.0 fund

Investors in a Blue Owl private credit BDC tendered less than 1% of shares to Saba and Cox Capital Partners, who had offered to buy them out at a 35% discount

Jack Dorsey said "Bitcoin is money"

Tennessee becomes second state to ban crypto ATMs

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Menlo Ventures partner @deedydas shared a list of the most profitable companies per employee. There's some interesting names.