US stocks fell yesterday as a muddied jobs report sparked economic fears

EM assets also fell

Oil settles near a five-year low on hopes of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal

Hungarian forint is up 21% YTD versus dollar and 7% YTD versus euro as the best-performing EM FX this year

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

Prediction market odds were unswayed by yesterday's jobs data, continuing to forecast more 2026 rate cuts than markets and Fed officials

Trade your predictions on 2026 Fed rate cuts on Polymarket

US unemployment rate hit 4.6% to a four-year high (CNBC)

US paused its $40B tech-focused trade deal with UK (NYT)

Trump will interview Fed governor Chris Waller for Fed chair (WSJ)

Ken Griffin urged White House to 'distance' itself from Fed (FT)

Morgan Stanley climbs debt rankings as go-to bank for AI bonanza (BBG)

Morgan Stanley surpassed Goldman in Asia ECM league tables (BBG)

US threatened to retaliate against Europe tech firms over EU regulation (FT)

Asset managers' cash holdings fell to a record low on bullish sentiment (FT)

US biotech share sales jumped to the highest since 2021 (BBG) 

Shadow bank assets topped $250T (BBG)

Citadel leaves Chicago tower as city faces 'job killer' tax (BBG)

Carl Icahn exec sued Bausch + Lomb for anti-white discrimination (BBG)

AustralianSuper CIO Mark Delaney will step down (BBG)

Shell's head of M&A quit after CEO blocked bid for BP (FT)

Europe reversed course on combustion engine ban (WSJ)

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Warner Bros. Discovery will tell shareholders to reject Paramount Skydance's $108B hostile bid after equity backer Affinity Partners exited talks; the firm will back Netflix's $72B bid

Chinese state-owned shipping giant Cosco is now pushing for a controlling stake in BlackRock and Italian shipping firm MSC's $23B Panama ports deal from Hong Kong infrastructure conglomerate CK Hutchison

Apollo is exploring a sale of air freight company Atlas Air Worldwide at an over $12B valuation, including debt

Activist investor Kimmeridge Energy offered to acquire Energy & Minerals Group-backed gas driller Ascent Resources for $6B

Swiss building materials supplier Holcim agreed to buy a majority stake in Peruvian peer Cementos Pacasmayo at a $1.5B valuation

Affinity Equity Partners is considering selling its stake in airport hospitality firm Plaza Premium Group at a $1B valuation

French PE firm Ardian acquired a 60% stake in luxury fashion retailer Kering's 715 Fifth Avenue property in NYC to form a $900M JV

Consortium Brand Partners is leading an investor group including Eldridge Industries, Bain Capital Credit, and Aurify Brands in acquiring restaurant chain California Pizza Kitchen for under $300M, five years post-bankruptcy

Centurium Capital-backed Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee is considering making a bid for Nestle's Blue Bottle Coffee

Three minority partners are close to acquiring an over 20% stake in MLB's Minnesota Twins from the Pohlad family at a $1.75B valuation in a deal that will clean up finances and help prepare for a complete sale 

Norwegian defense firm Kongsberg agreed to buy a 90% stake in US missile company Zone 5 Technologies

Brazilian state-owned energy giant Petrobras is seeking buy a 49.9% stake in the Brazilian unit of UK energy giant BP's solar and battery arm Lightsource

Shell restarted efforts to sell its 37.5% stake in Germany's PCK Schwedt oil refinery

Asian PE firm Longreach is considering selling its majority stake in the hamburger chain Wendy's in Japan

Swiss commodities giant Glencore acquired Pan Pacific Copper's Quechua project in Peru

UK sports streaming giant DAZN is in advanced talks to acquire a majority stake in US regional sports broadcaster Main Street Sports

OpenAI is in talks to raise $10B at an over $500B valuation from Amazon

Data analytics software platform Databricks raised a $4B Series L at a $134B valuation led by Insight Partners, Fidelity, and JPMorgan Asset Management 

Boats Group, an online boat marketplace operator, raised a $600M growth investment from CPPIB

Stablecoin payments fintech RedotPay raised a $107M Series B led by Goodwater Capital 

Last Energy, a small modular nuclear reactor startup, raised a $100M Series C led by the Astera Institute   

Adaptive Security, an AI-driven cybersecurity company, raised an $81M Series B led by BCV  

Digantara, an Indian space surveillance and missile-tracking startup, raised a $50M Series B from 360 ONE Asset, SBI Investments, Ronnie Screwvala, Peak XV Partners, and Kalaari Capital   

Digital advertising OS startup Fluency raised a $40M Series A led by Integrity Growth Partners

Echo, a provider of AI-driven secure container base images, raised a $35M Series A led by N47

Vital Lyfe, a portable water-making startup, raised an $18M seed led by Interlagos and General Catalyst

DataLane, an identity graph startup for local businesses, raised a $22.5M Series A led by Amplify Partners

Sequence, an AI revenue-automation startup, raised a $20M Series A led by 645 Ventures 

Cold-chain platform Ember LifeSciences raised a $16.5M Series A led by Sea Court Capital  

Dux Security, an agentic exposure management startup, raised a $9M seed round led by Redpoint, TLV Partners, and Maple Capital

Fraud-detection startup Verisoul raised an $8.8M Series A led by High Alpha

Preventive health testing startup Lucis raised an $8.5M seed round led by General Catalyst

Speed, a Lightning-powered stablecoin payments startup, raised an $8M strategic equity round led by Tether

Blackstone, Carlyle, and Hellman & Friedman-backed medical supplies firm Medline raised $6.3B in an upsized IPO in the biggest PE IPO exit ever

Japanese lender SBI Shinsei Bank raised $2.1B at an $8.5B valuation in Japan's second-largest IPO this year

Chinese chipmaker MetaX raised $585M in a China IPO that was 3000x oversubscribed IPO

Indian quick-commerce/delivery firm Zepto is preparing to file for a $500M India IPO

Chinese portable power firm ChEcoFlow Technology is considering a US IPO that could raise $300M

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe will voluntarily delist in Zimbabwe while it plans a listing of its infrastructure unit Econet InfraCo

Pharma company Zoetis intends to raise $1.75B in a convertible bond sale

US firefighting chemical producer Perimeter Solutions sold $550M of junk notes to help fund its proposed acquisition of Medical Manufacturing Technologies

First Brands' founder Patrick James is seeking to dismiss a fraud lawsuit, countering that 'predatory' off-balance-sheet lenders drove the auto parts supplier into bankruptcy

Carlyle lost over $100M on a loan it provided to now-bankrupt Roomba maker iRobot

Spirit Airlines is again in talks to merge with peer Frontier Airlines as it seeks to exit its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Philippine tycoon Manuel Villar is selling troubled utility PrimeWater to grocery magnate Lucio Co's Crystal Bridges, exiting amid regulatory scrutiny and customer complaints

PIMCO raised over $7B for an ABF strategy for insurance companies and wealthy individuals

JPMorgan Asset Management's PE arm raised $1.44B for its twelfth flagship fund

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Jefferies are now selling complex crypto products 

FDIC launched plan for banks to apply to issue stablecoins

UK City Minister says UK can 'lead the world' in crypto 

We all know that technology hype cycles and adoption cycles often never line up. But how does it look in context of AI? Check out James Emanuel's incredible piece on AI hype, adoption, valuations, capex, and everything in between.

Clare Flynn Levy published an insightful piece for the CFA Institute on who benefits (and who doesn't) in a world with no mandatory quarterly earnings.