US stocks rose to new highs on earnings and US-Iran optimism

Singapore bonds are beating US Treasuries by the most since 2007 on haven demand

Morgan Stanley smashed Q1 estimates on the way to record revenue as trading results exceeded expectations by a whopping $1B; IB revenue also surged 36% (CNBC)

Bank of America beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates on record equities trading results, a surge in IB, and strong net interest income (CNBC)

ASML issued a Q1 beat-and-raise but its stock fell 6% on tightening export controls to China (CNBC)

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

Markets are sleeping on Allbirds

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

US is optimistic about an Iran deal as it raises economic pressure (RT)

Trump threatened to fire J Pow if he doesn't quit following chair term (CNBC)

Trump acknowledged AI risks and backed safeguards for banking (RT)

Trump warned he could rip up US-UK trade deal (FT)

Allbirds soared after rebranding to an AI company (CNBC)

American Eagle rallied again after second Sydney Sweeney campaign (RT)

Wall Street banks predict IPO resilience as revenue climbs (BBG)

Largest US banks spent a record $33B on share buybacks in Q1 (FT)

BlackRock urged LPs to spread hedge fund bets amid market swings (RT)

'BIFs' replace 'PIIGS' as Europe's bond market whipping boys (FT)

PIMCO CIO doesn't see systemic risk from private credit (RT)

Norway's $2T SWF has no plans to reduce US assets (FT)

Saudi's $1T SWF sets new strategy to build global champions (BBG)

Quant traders join push against bid to relax quarterly earnings (RT)

CFTC is probing insider oil trades made before Trump's Iran comments (RT)

SEC removed day-trading limit for small retail investors (BBG)

Snap will cut 16% of jobs (RT)

A federal jury found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster illegally monopolized ticket markets (CNBC)

K&E poached Wachtell's top RX lawyer with guaranteed $80M pay (FT)

US charged SantaCon promoter Stefan Pildes with fraud (NYT)

US has no opinion yet on a potential ~$40B United Airlines-American Airlines merger

A consortium of telecom groups Bouygues Telecom, Iliad, and Orange are in advanced talks to acquire SFR, the French business of indebted telecoms Altice, at a potential $23B valuation

Sazerac offered to acquire spirits giant Brown-Forman for $15B, crashing rival Pernod Ricard's merger talks

Spanish solar firm Solaria is in talks to join a Spain-backed consortium of Telefónica and ACS seeking to develop a $4.7B data center hub

HVAC conglomerate Johnson Controls International is weighing divesting its Access Control and Intrusion Detection units in its security division that could fetch $4.5B

Machine engineering firm Esco Technologies agreed to acquire TBG's testing unit Megger Group in a $2.35B cash-and-stock deal

UK insurer Standard Life agreed to buy the UK arm of Dutch insurer Aegon in a $2.7B cash and stock deal

Japanese beverages firm Suntory will buy Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare, the OTC subsidiary of pharma firm Daiichi Sankyo, in a $1.6B deal

Yum Brands-owned pizza chains Papa Johns and Pizza Hut are actively negotiating separate take-private deals with various PE firms; Papa Johns could be valued at $1.5B in a deal

Israeli stock trading platform eToro will acquire crypto wallet provider Zengo for $70M cash

Robotics software firm Skild AI acquired the robotics automation division of Zebra Technologies

Brazilian steelmaker CSN is expecting binding offers for its cement unit in the next few ​weeks

Alphabet is set for a $100B windfall from its early SpaceX investment

Saudi's PIF is set to cut support for LIV Golf after investing $5B to build a PGA rival

Mexican digital bank Plata raised a $405M Series C at a $5B valuation led by Bicycle Capital

Glydways, a personal autonomous pod startup, raised a $170M Series C co-led by Suzuki, ACS Group, and Khosla Ventures

Turion Space, a space infrastructure company, raised a $75M Series B led by Washington Harbour Partners

Artemis, a cybersecurity startup fighting AI-powered attacks with AI, raised a $70M seed and Series A led by Felicis 

Parasail, a cloud computing service for AI inference, raised a $32M Series A co-led by Touring Capital and Kindred Ventures

NanoTech Materials, an advanced materials company, raised a $29.4M Series A led by HPI Real Estate & Investments

Hilbert, an AI startup that helps businesses automate growth-driving business decisions, raised a $28M Series A led by a16z

Gizmo, an AI-powered learning platform, raised a $22M Series A led by Shine Capital

Auctor, an AI platform for coordinating software implementation, raised a $20M Series A led by Sequoia

Phonely, a voice AI startup, raised a $16M Series A at a $100M valuation led by Base10 Partners

HYFIX, a semiconductor startup building autonomous systems chips, raised a $15M seed round led by Craft Ventures

GobbleCube, an AI-based brand analytics platform, raised a $15M Series A led by Susquehanna Venture Capital

Gitar, an AI-driven code validation startup, raised a $9M round led by Venrock

Brix, a fintech platform tokenizing EM financial assets, raised a $5.5M round from FRWRD Ventures, Circle Ventures, and others

SpaceX is planning site visits for large investors ahead of its historic $75B IPO

Amazon-backed nuclear reactor developer X-Energy is seeking to raise $815M at a $7.5B valuation in its IPO

Chinese specialized electronics manufacturer Victory Giant is set to price its Hong Kong listing at the highest possible figure to raise $2.6B

HVAC giant Madison Air Solutions raised $2.2B at a $13.2B valuation in the biggest US industrials IPO of this century

Quant trader Jane Street took an additional $1B stake in $62B-listed AI cloud computing firm CoreWeave and signed a $6B cloud deal

Uzbekistan's SWF UzNIF is in talks to add cornerstone investors for its planned London IPO

European steel firm Trasteel Holding will merge with Sizzle Acquisition Corp. II in a $230M deal 

JPMorgan raised $10B in a record bond sale by a Wall Street bank

Morgan Stanley also raised $10B in a record bond sale by a Wall Street bank

Brazil raised $5.9B in its biggest global bond market sale and its first euro bond sale in over a decade

Two data centers linked to Google are seeking to raise a record $5.7B in a junk bond sale

Colombia bought $290M of dollars ahead of a $4B bond buyback plan

China plans to raise $2.3B in its biggest yuan bond sale in Hong Kong since 2023

Data center firm Switch raised $770M in an ABS sale

PIMCO bought all $400M of bonds issued by a Blue Owl private credit fund

Brazilian investment firm Quadra Capital is nearing a $3B acquisition of assets from state-owned Banco de Brasília that were previously held by liquidated lender Banco Master

Spirit Airlines may begin to liquidate immediately 

Liquidators of collapsed Chinese developer Evergrande picked Chinese state-backed tourism firm Guangdong Provincial Tourism over PE firms PAG and Trustar Capital to enter exclusive talks to acquire a majority stake in its property management unit Evergrande Property Services

UK picked an unnamed preferred bidder for the sale of Speciality Steel

Singapore quant hedge fund Meridian & Saturn Capital won a $1B mandate from a Gulf SWF to trade Chinese stocks

Nordic sustainable investor Alder raised $300M for a multi-asset CV

Swiss PE firm ACE & Company raised $230M across a new secondaries fund and lower MM PE fund

Spain plans to raise a $200M Boston-focus biotech VC fund

Bitcoin miners are set to make 70% of revenue from AI pivots

Crypto hedge funds turn to oil and gold on 24/7 venues

Early investors in Trump's World Liberty won't be able to fully cash out until after Trump's presidency

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