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US jobs growth was revised down by the most ever, Apollo's president gave a bleak warning for PE firms, global bonds re-entered a bull market, activist hedge funds made BILL their latest target, and Oracle issued a blowout forecast causing its stock to rocket past JPMorgan, Visa, and Walmart to become a top-10 most valuable US company.

Investors at top funds use Tenzing MEMO to get up to speed quickly on nearly 6,000 public companies. Real-time research, topical briefings, intelligent Q&A, financial news, event transcripts, and SEC filings, and more…all at your finger tips. Check 'em out.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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Markets

• US stocks rose yesterday as a massive downwards revision to jobs data boosted bets of Fed rate cuts

  • All three major indexes closed at ATHs

  • Money markets traders fully priced in three 25 bps rate cuts by year-end 

• China's chipmakers index surged by a record 28% last month

• Global bonds re-entered a bull market after surging 20% from its 2022 low to its highest level March 2022

  • US Treasuries snapped a four-day win streak

• Gold rallied to a new ATH

• Arabica coffee premium jumped to the highest since 2011 

Earnings

• Oracle missed Q1 earnings but beat on revenue and absolutely smashed FY cloud infrastructure forecasts with booked cloud orders now seen at $500B; their stock surged 27% to become the tenth-most valuable US company and make Larry Ellison the world's second-richest person (CNBC)

• GameStop beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates on strong sales in its hardware and collectibles segment as it embraces digital storefronts to battle competition from larger retailers and e-commerce platforms; their Bitcoin stockpile hit $500M (WSJ)

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Chewy

  • Thursday: Kroger, Adobe

• Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

• Traders are now pricing in two rate cuts at minimum.

• Trade your predictions on a range of events, only on Kalshi. Sign up with code LIT and get a $20 bonus when you trade $100.

Headline Roundup

• US jobs growth was revised down by the most ever (CNBC)

• US floats new tariffs on China and India to squeeze Russia (BBG)

• Jamie Dimon said US economy is weakening (BBG)

• US small-business optimism climbs but labor quality concerns persist (RT)

• Apollo president predicts 'washout' for PE firms amid slowdown (BBG)

• Hedge funds ride August highs to keep returns positive (RT)

• Buyers' fatigue threatens US stock rally as fund flows weaken (BBG)

• Looming listings put ailing European IPO market to test (FT)

• JPMorgan named three insiders as global chairs of IB (RT)

• Saudi's $1T SWF PIF will unveil a new investment roadmap (BBG)

• Australia's SWF cut US exposure for Germany and Japan (RT)

• CVC joined Amsterdam's AEX index (BBG)

• HSBC legacy investors refuse to sell back high-coupon bonds (BBG)

• China's green tech firms pour billions into overseas factories (BBG)

• OpenAI execs rattled by campaigns to derail for-profit restructuring (WSJ)

• Apple launched iPhone 17 Air and more (CNBC)

• Microsoft will use AI from Anthropic in partial shift from OpenAI (TI)

• United and Spirit execs feud on Twitter over business model (RT)

• Big Oil slashes jobs and investments as low crude prices bite (FT)

• Walmart will launch in Africa (RT)

• Novo Nordisk will cut 9k jobs (CNBC)

• Nearly half of Israeli tech startups incorporate abroad (RT)

• Ally Lecornu was named new French PM (BBG)

• Israel launched an attack on Hamas in Qatar (WSJ)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Mining giant Anglo American and Canada's Teck Resources agreed to merge to create an $53B entity in one of the largest mining deals in a decade

• O&G giant Phillips 66 agreed to acquire a 50% stake in JV partner Cenovus Energy's refining unit for $1.4B

• Swiss pharma giant Novartis agreed to acquire biotech Tourmaline Bio in a  $1.4B all-cash deal at an over 60% premium

• Blackstone and Permira invested $525M in UAE property portal Property Finder

• Financial services firm Baird acquired a stake in Canadian alternative asset manager Sagard

• German logistics giant DHL will acquire healthcare logistics firm SDS Rx

VC

• Superintelligence startup Reflection AI is close to raising $1B at a $5B valuation from Nvidia, Lightspeed, Sequoia, and DST Global

• Singapore SWF GIC and Japan’s SoftBank are considering selling their stakes in Vietnamese fintech firm VNLife at an over $1B valuation

• QuEra Computing, a startup building quantum computers with neutral atoms, raised a $230M Series B extension from NVentures

• Harbor Health, a primary and specialty care clinic group and health insurance company, raised $130M in funding led by General Catalyst, 8VC, and Alta Partners

• Scintil Photonics, a startup developing integrated photonic system-on-chip solutions for AI infrastructure, raised a $58M Series B led by Yotta Capital Partners and NGP Capital

• ReOrbit, a Finnish startup focused on sovereign satellites, raised a $53M Series A from Varma, Icebreaker.vc, Expansion VC, 10x Founders, and others

• Crypto exchange Gemini raised a $50M strategic investment from Nasdaq ahead of its IPO

• Higgsfield, an AI native video reasoning engine, raised a $50M Series A led by GFT Ventures

• Nitricity, a startup turning almond shell waste into organic fertilizer, raised a $50M round from Chipotle, Khosla Ventures, and others

• AI-powered productivity assistant startup Fyxer.ai raised a $30M Series B led by Madrona

• Palm Tree Crew, a global entertainment & investment holding company, raised a $20M Series B at a $215M valuation led by WME Group

• Danish healthcare fintech Teton.ai raised a $20M Series A led by Plural

• Fusion startup Proxima Fusion raised a $17M Series A extension from CDP Venture Capital, European Innovation Council Fund, and Brevan Howard

• Nuclearn, a startup building AI tools for the nuclear industry, raised a $10.5M Series A led by Blue Bear Capital

• Power quality and reliability solutions startup florrent raised a $9.5M seed-2 round led by MassVentures

• Sphinx, a startup building AI for data, raised a $9.5M seed round led by Lightspeed

• Parento, a provider of comprehensive paid parental leave insurance, raised a $5.9M seed II round led by ResilienceVC

• Geothermal startup Dig Energy raised a $5M seed round led by Azolla Ventures and Avila VC

• Architect AI, a startup building an agentic website platform, raised a $4.8M seed round led by Project A

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Swedish BNPL fintech Klarna raised $1.4B at a $15B valuation in a US IPO priced above a marketed range

• Blockchain-based lender Figure raised its IPO offering to $693M at a $4.7B valuation

• Crypto exchange Gemini raised its IPO offering to $433M at a $3.1B valuation 

• Activist hedge fund Elliott built a 5% stake SME-focused fintech BILL and may push for a sale

• Saudi gourmet food producer and restaurant chain Bateel International is exploring an IPO

Debt

• Jeep maker Stellantis sold $2B of investment grade bonds

• China Pacific Insurance is considering selling $2B of convertible bonds

• Kenya plans to borrow $1B in a debt-for-food security swap

• Canadian insurance firm Definity Financial plans to sell $723M of debt as it prepares to close its acquisition of Travelers Canada

• Cloud software firm Dropbox raised another $700M in private credit from Blackstone 

• Blue Owl Capital-owned data center operator Stack Infrastructure is exploring a $700M debt deal linked to assets in Italy

• Swedish digital infrastructure firm EcoDataCenter raised $700M in private credit from Deutsche Bank Private Credit and Infrastructure

• Sri Lanka plans to secure a $500M yuan loan

• Hawaiian Electric Industries is seeking to raise $400M in a senior, unsecured junk-bond deal

• Vietnamese EV maker VinFast will announce a $200M loan from Indian state-owned banks as it continues to seek equity investors

• Pollen Street Capital extended a $100M lending facility to UAE-based SME fintech CredibleX

• Chinese tech giant Tencent is considering its first public debt offering in four years 

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• United Overseas Bank extended the maturity of a $1.3B loan tied to a luxury Hong Kong apartment complex from defaulted Chinese developer Shimao

• Agri-commodities trader Cargill is in advanced talks to back hostile creditor Grassi's bid to take over distressed Argentine soy exporter Vicentin 

Fundraising / Secondaries

• Private credit-focused Pemberton Asset Management raised $1.7B for its debut NAV financing fund

• Ex-King Street partner Paul Goldschmid will launch L/S credit hedge fund Harvey Capital Partners with over $1B in one of the biggest hedge fund debuts this year

• Private real estate investment firm Cottonwood Group raised a $1B special situations fund

• UK's largest asset manager Legal & General raised $704M for a digital infrastructure fund

• Midwest PE firm Rockbridge Growth Equity raised $360M for its third fund

• Ex-Fir Tree Partners PM Sachin Gupta launched Covara Capital, an opportunistic L/S credit hedge fund, with $250M in seeding from Blackstone 

• AI cloud computing firm CoreWeave launched CoreWeave Ventures to invest in AI startups

Crypto Sum Snapshot

• Cboe will offer 'continuous' futures for Bitcoin and Ether

• Democrats unveiled a new crypto framework to counter Trump's footprint

• Trump Media will let Truth Social users convert 'gems' into CRO tokens

• A unit of China’s Ant Digital put $8B of energy assets on its blockchain

Read our Crypto Sum newsletter for the most important stories on everything crypto.

Exec’s Picks

• Bloomberg did a deep dive into one prestigious university booming in the Trump Era. So much to the envy of its peers…

• WSJ explored an unusual off-court rivalry between Steph and LeBron: sneaker wars in China.

Finance & Startup Recruiting 💼

Litney Partners

If you're a junior banker looking for your next career move, check out Litney Partners, a recruiting venture between Litquidity and Whitney Partners (the oldest purely financial services executive search and consulting firm), Litney Partners places talent at leading firms in PE, hedge funds, VC, growth, credit, IB, and fintech and is currently recruiting for some incredible roles. Head over to our website to drop your resume and we'd love to get in touch!

Featured role(s):

BlueFlame AI – Product Strategists (New York, NY):

• BlueFlame is seeking two Product Strategists, one focused on investment banking and another focused on private equity

• The product strategy team bridges the capabilities of the technology they build with domain-specific needs and expectations of their clients

• The ideal candidates will have between 3-5 years of front office experience at top-tier IB / PE firms

• Opportunity for junior bankers or PE investors to break into the AI technology field

• Competitive base of $175k-$200k + bonus

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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.