US stocks rallied further yesterday as investors assessed Fed rate cuts and AI developments 

Pound slid to a three-year low versus euro on UK budget concerns 

Yuan-dollar one-year risk reversals, yuan's long-term hedging costs, fell below zero for the first time since 2011 as dollar weakens

Alibaba beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates as cloud revenue surged 34% on robust AI demand, while playing down AI-bubble fears and highlighting continued heavy FCF investment into CapEx despite a profit decline (CNBC)

Dell missed Q3 revenue estimates but beat on earnings and issued a strong Q4 forecast as $9.4B in AI-related sales solidifies its role as an AI infrastructure bellwether (CNBC)

Best Buy issued a Q3 beat-and-raise on tech upgrades and strong demand for computers, gaming consoles, and smartphones (CNBC)

Abercrombie beat Q3 earnings and revenue estimates as company-wide sales rose 7% on 16% growth at Hollister, which continues to offset softness at the Abercrombie brand as it heads into the holiday season. The stock rose 37%. (CNBC)

Workday beat Q3 earnings and revenue estimates on new AI offerings but reported lighter-than-expected margin guidance on turbulence at federally funded-higher education institutions (CNBC)

Kohl's issued another beat-and-raise for Q3, signaling early traction in its turnaround as value-focused shoppers respond to expanded coupon-eligible and proprietary brands (RT)

Full calendar here

Kevin Hassett has emerged as the front-runner to succeed J Pow as Fed chair. Unless you think Trump and Bessent can identify a more loyal dove, keep an eye on Hassett’s odds.

Track and trade live odds on any event, only on Polymarket.

State Street roasted JPMorgan's biggest ETF in marketing email (BBG)

Apollo, Ares, and BlackRock were sued for running an 'illegal cartel' and freezing companies out of the US credit market (BBG) 

Kevin Hassett emerged as the front-runner for Fed chair (BBG)

US budget deficit hit $284B in October (BBG)

FDIC approved relaxed bank leverage rules (RT)

Global fund management industry is set to hit $200T AUM by 2030 (FT)

Private credit defaults are set to climb as middle market firms wobble (BBG)

Crypto crash weighs on IPOs as candidates push out timing (BBG)

AI trade splinters as Google emerges as surprise Nvidia challenger (WSJ)

Sleeping giant Google is now 'fully awake' in AI race (BBG)

Robinhood partnered with Susquehanna to expand prediction markets (WSJ)

BlackRock looks to double Saudi investments in fresh deal boom (BBG)

ECB is investigating Deutsche Bank for underplaying balance sheet risks (FT)

RBC denied claims of 'boys club' culture amid discrimination lawsuit (BBG) 

HP will cut ~6k jobs in AI ramp-up (RT)

TikTok named ex-Boeing exec Ziad Ojakli as head of US public policy (RT)

Chinese couple rakes in $9B as AI firm surges over 500% YTD (BBG)

$57B-listed Warner Bros. Discovery asked bidders Paramount Skydance, Comcast, and Netflix for sweetened offers

Russian O&G giant Lukoil acquired co-founder Leonid Fedun's $7B stake

Brookfield and Singapore’s GIC are jointly exploring a takeover of Australia's $2B-listed National Storage REIT

An unidentified buyer agreed to acquire a Hyatt Regency luxury hotel in Tokyo from KKR and Gaw Capital Partners for over $800M

Blockchain infrastructure firm Paxos agreed to acquire wallet startup Fordefi for over $100M

Atlantic Connect Group, an investor consortium led by ex-Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, is seeking to acquire an 85% stake in Portugal's Azores Airlines for $20M

Robinhood and market maker Susquehanna will acquire a majority stake in derivatives exchange LedgerX from Miami International

Brazilian meatpacker JBS and rival Viva agreed to combine their leather production and commercialization assets to form JBS VIVA

UK-listed gambling group Evoke is weighing a sale of its Italian online business

Europe's SpaceX-rival The Exploration Company is seeking to raise well over $160M in a new round 

Harmonic, the math AI startup founded by Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, raised a $120M Series C at a $1.45B valuation led by Ribbit Capital

Tenzai, an Israeli AI-native cybersecurity startup, raised a $75M seed round led by Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, and Lux Capital

Vegetation-intelligence startup Overstory raised a $43M Series B led by Blume Equity

DualBird, a data infrastructure startup, raised a $25M combined Seed and Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners 

AI-agent trust platform Vijil raised a $17M funding round led by BrightMind Partners 

Zero-trust networking startup NetFoundry expanded its Series A to over $15M led by Cisco Investments and SYN Ventures

AI-native ERP startup CoPlane raised a $14M seed round led by Ribbit Capital

PowerUP Energy Technologies, maker of hydrogen fuel-cell generators, raised an $11.6M Series A co-led by Mercaton and ScaleWolf

UAE AI sourcing startup Zinit raised an $8M seed round led by AltaIR Capital 

AI One, an enterprise context management startup, raised a $7M Series A led by Vestigo Ventures

Strataphy, a geothermal cooling technology startup, raised a $6M seed round led by Outliers VC and Shorooq

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman plans to raise $5B for a new US-listed closed-end fund that will IPO at the same time as his hedge fund Pershing Square

Bain Capital is seeking to sell a $2.3B stake in Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia in a block trade

Abu Dhabi SWF ADIA raised $552M in a 5% share sale in Qatar's biggest telecom operator Ooredoo

Malaysian pension LTAT is seeking to reduce its exposure to strategic assets from 58% to 35% by offloading stakes in Affin Bank, conglomerate Boustead Holdings, and Boustead Plantations

Indian contract manufacturer Zetwerk hired banks for an IPO that may raise $750M

UAE's Etihad Airways took a 3% stake holding in Ireland's Aer Lingus

The Enhanced Games, a Thiel-backed Olympics-rival that embraces PEDs, is in advanced talks to merge with A Paradise Acquisition Corp. in a $1B deal 

PE firm CD&R is planning to sell $4.5B of dollar and euro leveraged loans, part of a larger $7.9B debt package, to fund its $10.3B LBO of packaging firm Sealed Air

Credit Agricole, Citigroup, Mizuho and UBS lined up an $810M leveraged loan to back Cinven's $2.3B LBO of Spanish private university Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio

Telecoms giant Altice is planning to pay off a $1.9B term loan two years early

Helicopter ambulance company Air Methods pulled a planned $1.1B leveraged loan sale that was being led by Jefferies

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com is seeking to raise $1B in an equity-linked bond sale

Angola agreed with JPMorgan to rollover a $1B loan that was due at year-end 

Used-car marketplace Carvana is preparing to sponsor a $935M securitization of revenue from a pool of prime retail auto loans

Argentine state-run energy group YPF raised $500M from a bond reopening

Amber Energy, an affiliate of activist hedge fund Elliott, won a court-ordered auction for control of US oil refiner and Venezuela's most-valuable foreign asset Citgo Petroleum for $5.9B

Fortress, Ares, and Blackstone are among investors set to lose a combined $1.4B on construction site solutions provider United Site Services as PE firm Platinum Equity prepares to hand control of the firm to lenders including Clearlake and Searchlight

Distressed Chinese developer Vanke's bonds plunged to 41¢ on debt concerns

Secondaries specialist Bonaccord Capital Partners is seeking to raise $1.6B for its third GP stakes fund

Hong Kong Baptist University's $1B endowment plans to raise private markets exposure to 10% while Ivy League LPs pull back

Investment firm Future Standard is seeking to raise $200M for a European MM PE fund 

Google's AI Futures Fund partnered with VC Accel's Accel Atoms India-focused pre-seed fund to invest in Indian and Indian-led AI startups

BlackRock is seeking to extend the investment horizon of its second Asia private credit fund by one year as it struggles to deploy capital 

Ex-VP Al Gore's climate venture Generation Investment Management raised another $200M for its Just Climate land restoration strategy from RBC, Achmea, EAPF, Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, CalSTRS, and others 

French hedge fund Capital Fund Management returned $2B to LPs from its flagship Stratus fund to address AUM constraints

BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF saw a record $2.2B outflows as crypto heads for its worst month since 2022

BNPL lender Klarna will launch a dollar-backed stablecoin as race in digital payments heats up

Crypto crash ruins Thanksgiving for retail traders once again

Everyone is comparing the AI bubble to the 2000 dot-com bubble, but Ben Carlson goes back further to see how it stands against the railway bubbles of the 1880s.