US stocks rallied yesterday after Trump called off Iran strikes to allow for talks (and for markets to rally)

Europe's Stoxx 600 is inches away from ATHs

Korea's stock market volatility is now exceeding the 2008 financial crisis

Palantir beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates on surging government and commercial contracts (CNBC)

Snap posted a Q2 loss but issued a strong sales forecast on improving momentum in their advertising business (CNBC)

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

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Citadel Securities says bull market drivers are 'firmly intact' (BBG)

Trump blasted Big Oil for 'making too much money' (WSJ)

US manufacturing activity hit a four-year high (RT)

Biggest firms report 'rock solid' profits as consumers face higher costs (FT)

Bond traders flying blind on Fed see risk yields spiral higher (BBG)

Bessent seen rebuffing Wall Street on US debt sale guidance (WSJ)

Dip buyers need to heed the market's warning signs (BBG)

Sponsors pushed for a bigger slice of CV profits in H1 (PB)

Stock-loving Korean president under fire over wild market swings (BBG)

Korean firms expanded short-term debt funding before market rout (BBG)

UK launches new push to revive London share trading (FT)

India's IPO boom is fading (BBG)

BlackRock is competing with megafunds in bid for Mexican projects (BBG)

Amodei is concerned that new talent is joining Anthropic only for money (AX)

Coatue's hedge fund sunk 8% in its worst month in a year (BBG)

Catastrophe bond sales are set to break records on wildfire risks (BBG)

Amazon hit a $3T market cap (CNBC)

JPMorgan will invest $750B to boost US housing and homeownership (WSJ)

DeepSeek's latest AI model is 100x cheaper than Claude (RT)

TikTok settled three teen social media lawsuits ahead of trial (RT)

UBS will settle anti-money laundering violations with SEC for $125M (BBG)

Treasury sued over lawsuit settlement payouts to Trump allies (BBG)

Curated deal flow of high-potential startups

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Hedge fund Yakira is pushing for Barry Diller's People Inc. to abandon its full takeover of $11B-listed MGM Resorts and instead pursue share buybacks

Capvest Partners-backed radiopharma firm Curium will acquire peer Lantheus in an $8B deal at a 20% premium

KKR will LBO ​medical device outsourcing company Integer Holdings in a $5.7B cash deal at a 50% premium 

Williams Cos. agreed to buy Momentum Midstream from PE firm EnCap Flatrock Midstream in a $5.5B cash and stock deal, including debt

$2.67B-listed Supernus Pharmaceuticals and $4.5B-listed Indivior Pharmaceuticals agreed to an all-stock merger 

Italian electrical manufacturing firm Prysmian will acquire smaller US peer Atkore in a $3.8B cash deal at a 30% premium

Visa will buy fraud intelligence provider BioCatch for $2.4B cash

KKR will acquire a 50% stake in a $2.1B portfolio of renewables assets from TotalEnergies 

Mexico's largest meat exporter SuKarne is exploring a $2B sale

Japanese trading house Itochu will buy 50% of US aircraft ​leasing business Aviation Capital Group from ‌Tokyo Century for $1.95B

Malaysia's Malayan Banking agreed to buy out Belgian insurer Ageas' 31% stake in regional insurer Etiqa for $1.2B

American Family Mutual will buy the remaining stake it does not already ​own in Bowhead Specialty in an all-cash deal at $1.2B valuation, a 10% premium 

Japanese asset manager ORIX agreed to buy UK airplane parts company AerFin in a $640M deal, including debt

Pacific Equity Partners ‌offered to acquire Aussie vehicle-leasing firm FleetPartners for $535M at a 27% premium

TotalEnergies will acquire Shell's European onshore renewables assets

UAE lender Emirates NBD agreed to acquire HSBC's Egypt retail banking unit 

French broadcaster TF1 is weighing a sale of its production and distribution unit Studio TF1

Investment firm Klesch Group acquired a Gelsenkirchen, Germany refinery from BP

Italy's state lender CDP is studying two takeovers after clinching a deal for high-tech security firm T-Defence

Base Power, a backyard energy storage startup of Michael Dell's son, raised a $1B Series D at a $13B post-money valuation led by Ribbit Capital, Addition, Valor Equity Partners, and JPMorgan's Strategic Investment Group

Nuclear startup Valar Atomics raised a $1B Series B at a $6B post-money valuation led by Sequoia 

UK AI chip start-up Olix raised a $312M Series B at a $3.3B post-money valuation led by Fundomo

Horizon3.ai, a cybersecurity startup, raised a $250M Series E at an over $2B valuation co-led by NightDragon and NEA

June, an enterprise AI deployment startup, raised a $20M pre-seed round led by Marc Benioff's Time Ventures  

Andromeda Surgical, an autonomous surgery platform startup, raised a $15M Series A led by Standard Capital

Actualyze AI, an enterprise AI governance and operations platform, raised a $7M seed round from Storm Ventures, Canaan Partners, and others

India is looking to list another 2.5% in Life Insurance Corp. to raise $1.3B, with an offer to offload an additional 4%

China Mobile is considering selling its 7.8% stake in Thai telecoms firm True Corp. worth $1.1B

Nigerian financial services group First HoldCo plans to raise $1B in a share sale 

Eugenie Patri Sebastien, a family office linked to brewer AB InBev, sold $843M worth of shares

Blue Owl-backed non-opioid pain medicines developer Latigo Biotherapeutics is seeking to raise $290M at a $1.1B valuation in an IPO

ESG-focused pet food firm Open Farm plans to raise $285M at a $1.4B valuation in a Canada IPO

Janus Henderson-backed cancer biotech BlossomHill Therapeutics is seeking to raise $133M at a $500M valuation in an IPO

Public Storage plans to lean on $2B in CMBSs to help fund its purchase of rival National Storage Affiliates

Aston Martin creditors threatened legal action over plans to sell branding rights as part of a $740M debt financing deal led by BlackRock-owned HPS Investment Partners

Laos state-owned power producer EDL-Generation sold $300M of junk dollar bonds 

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is looking to sell $230M of packaged insured loans in an initial deal 

EchoStar's satellite internet unit Hughes Satellite Systems filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy 

KKR raised a record $19.2B for its fifth infrastructure fund 

FOF Adams Street Partners raised over $5B for its eighth secondaries fund and related vehicles

Index Ventures raised $2B across a new seed fund, a flagship VC fund, and a growth fund

Insurance giant MetLife raises $1.2B for a third PE fund

Robinhood is seeking to raise $200M its second listed VC fund which will invest in Y Combinator-backed startups

Jim Cramer plans to sell all his Bitcoin on quantum computing fears

An FBI agent was arrested for stealing $1M in crypto

Michael Saylor says he's never sold his personal Bitcoin after Strategy dumps more

Bloomberg published an interesting deep dive on how AQR grew to become the world's biggest and preeminent quant hedge fund by helping rich people avoid taxes.

WSJ published a profile on Indiana University's student-run real estate investment business, Sample Gates Management. The group is not only raising it's own independent capital but also posting stellar returns. The non-targets are on the rise.