US stocks closed mostly flat as traders continued to weigh the bond market selloff alongside Xi's historic White House visit 

US yields continued to climb

Dollar hit a two-month high

Costco beat Q4 earnings and revenue estimates on continued spending from consumers undeterred by sticky inflation, especially in its gas business which had a record year (WSJ)

Darden Restaurants missed Q1 earnings and revenue estimates as short-term challenges like diarrhea concerns and the World Cup weighed on Darden's same-store sales (CNBC)

Full calendar here

Scott Bessent's house is literally on fire

Deposit $10 and get a $20 bonus with code LIT on signup, only on the Polymarket US app

#1 NFL draft pick Fernando Mendoza launches educational series called 'Finance with Fernando' (BR)

PE path to riches is getting harder to follow (BBG)

Hedge funds sour on basis trade as Treasury selloff continues (RT)

Treasury rout is threatening popular EM carry trade (BBG)

EM governments are selling FX bonds at record pace despite rising rates (FT)

Hedge fund talent war is set to push analyst pay above $10M (FNL)

Goldman reaped $200M in fees from Situational Awareness (FT)

Point72 joins hedge fund peers in extending capital lockup terms (BBG)

Bank of America plans to ​hire 1,000 more apprentices (RT)

HSBC axes $26k members' club perk for Hong Kong bankers (FT)

Jane Street will double London office space after breakneck growth (FT)

PE could revolutionize US lawyer pay (FT)

Trump, Xi thrust fierce US-China AI rivalry into spotlight (BBG)

US asked OpenAI and Anthropic to hold models from UK testers (RT)

Tiny startups are getting even smaller with help from AI (WSJ)

Jeff Bezos has invested $30B of his own wealth in Blue Origin (WSJ)

Deloitte's tech consulting arm curbs global revenue growth (FT)

US new home sales jumped to an eight-month high (RT)

US is considering diesel export restrictions (WSJ)

US will get two pandas from China (BBG)

VC Fundamentals: How venture capital differs from private equity, traditional assets, and why its structure creates the potential for outsized returns.

How Funds Work: How AV builds diversified portfolios across stages, sectors, and funds — and the logic behind each layer.

Who It's For: How accredited investors can access an asset class once reserved for institutions, and what getting started with AV looks like.

$50B-listed German lender Commerzbank could buy UniCredit's German bank HVB as part of a merger

Credit Agricole and UniCredit are considering a joint move on $28B-listed Italian lender Banco BPM ‌under a plan that would entail a breakup 

A consortium of BlackRock's AIP and IFM Investors are in exclusive talks to acquire Stack Infrastructure's APAC data centers from owner Blue Owl for $20B-$25B

Gen Digital, the company that makes Norton 360 antivirus software, offer to acquire $13B-listed web domain firm GoDaddy 

PE firm Hellman & Friedman is exploring a $10B sale of insurance software provider Applied Systems

Barry Diller's People Inc. dropped its full takeover pursuit of $8.5B-listed MGM Resorts after trouble securing equity

Activist Starboard Value built a stake in $3B-listed construction company Knife River, and is pushing the firm explore a sale

MGM Resorts is exploring making a bid for Barry Diller's $2.7B-listed People Inc.

BP is weighing an acquisition ​of Devon Energy's South Texas assets, which could be worth $4.5B

PE firms CVC and NSSK are weighing a $3.2B take-private bid for Japanese health products company Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co.

US tungsten maker The Elmet Group will take a 5% stake in Vietnam's Masan High-Tech Materials from a unit of conglomerate Masan Group at a $2.5B valuation

Schneider Electric agreed to acquire Bulgarian home smart device maker Shelly Group in a $1.4B deal, excluding debt, at a 25% premium 

Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Dangote plan to build a $660M petroleum pipeline

Italian engineering company Trevi Finanziaria Industriale rejected a $335M all-stock takeover offer from larger peer Webuild as undervalued

RedBird Capital Partners will acquire a majority stake in ​five-year-old newsletter startup Puck at a $250M valuation

Abu Dhabi SWF Mubadala is in talks to acquire a 15%-35% stake in power plant developer Ansaldo Energia from Italian state lender CDP

Poland is seeking an alternative way to reorganize its biggest insurer PZU amid a delay in its merger with Polish lender Pekao

Proxy advisor Glass Lewis will merge with Europe-focused ESG data and analytics firm Clarity AI

Utility PG&E Corp will consider separating some assets as a wildfire liability deal with California stalled 

Island, an AI enterprise security tools developer, raised a $400M Series F at a $6.4B valuation led by Evolution Equity Partners

OpenEvidence, an AI search engine for doctors, raised $250M at a $15B valuation from hospital systems and a16z

Rightway, a pharmacy benefit management and care navigation company, raised a $155M Series E led by Francisco Partners

Solcoa Industries, a rare earth metallization startup, raised $45M in equity led by Bain Capital Ventures 

BigHat Biosciences, an AI-designed protein therapeutics company, raised a $75M Series C co-led by DFJ Growth and Premji Invest

HIFI, a stablecoin payments and tokenized assets company, raised a $37M Series A led by Left Lane Capital

Ando, a team messaging app that integrates human and AI agents, raised a $20M pre-seed and seed round from Accel, Index Ventures, and Emergence 

Trebellar, an AI-native corporate real estate management startup, raised an $18M Series A led by Blossom Capital

Prime Minute, a resilience startup focused on disaster response, raised a $15M pre-seed round led by Eclipse  

Mesa Quantum, a developer of chip-scale quantum sensing technology, raised an $11.8M funding round led by Playground Global

National Stock Exchange of India raised $2.4B for a $47B valuation in one of India's biggest IPOs ever

Indian steel firm JSW ​One ‌filed for a $312M India IPO

Francisco Partners-backed unicorn pharmacy benefit manager Rightway is considering an IPO

Drug developer City Therapeutics filed for an IPO

VTOL drone startup Elroy Air raised its PIPE funding to $175M from Lockheed Martin Ventures and Inflection Point ahead of its $1B merger with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. VII

Banks led by Citigroup are selling $7.5B of term loans meant to fund Paramount's $110B takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery

SoftBank raised $11.1B in its largest junk bond sale yet to fund its investment in OpenAI

12 banks including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are looking to sell $4.8B of junk debt to back KKR and ECP's $7.5B take-private of UK energy distribution firm DCC Energy

Hong Kong is seeking to raise $2.6B in a record digital bond sale

India's Reliance Industries plans to raise $1B in a local bond sale

Oracle issued a force majeure notice to a Blue Owl unit developing a large New Mexico ‌data center citing potential delays; Oracle cannot terminate the lease under any circumstances

A Singapore court appointed KPMG to take charge of fraud-accused iron ore trader Radiant World after an application by creditor Mizuho, founder Pinkesh Nahar was removed from control 

Foresight Group raised a $460M CV for Aussie transport operator Kinetic led by Hamilton Lane

Saudi's PIF is weighing an initial $500M fixed-income allocation to PIMCO

Blackstone debuted a multi-asset private-markets fund for non-US retail investors

Cathie Wood's ARK Invest tokenized a $1.3B VC fund that trades 24/7

Fed proposed new stablecoin rules

BlackRock debuted three investment portfolios that will trade as digital tokens

The annual LIT Cup is also back at Sensa Padel in Nashville for a weekend of padel, drinks, our favorite DJ, and tournament action among players across four divisions.

We're hosting an intimate happy hour for Nashville's tech, finance, and business community on Friday followed by a weekend of nonstop courtside action.

This is a great opportunity to connect with industry peers, get in your padel reps, or simply enjoy an atmosphere among Nashville's best at Sensa's incredible riverside complex!