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Good Morning,

The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, GM sued San Francisco, Goldman and Morgan Stanley expect China’s housing slump to worsen, the UK economy is set to dodge a hard landing, bus stations around the US are closing, and Apple can restart watch sales.

Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks rose as the S&P closed near record levels

  • The Dow led indices with a 0.30% gain

• Asian stocks rose as positive US rate sentiment spilled into Asian markets

Earnings

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• New York Times sues Microsoft and OpenAI for copyright infringement (BBG)

• Global bond ‘carnival’ sets stage for best two months on record (BBG)

• GM sues San Francisco, seeking $121M in back taxes, penalties (RT)

• Maersk schedules dozens of vessels to travel via Suez Canal (RT)

• Goldman, Morgan Stanley expect China’s housing slump to worsen (BBG)

• UK economy set to escape hard landing in boost for Rishi Sunak (BBG)

• Apple can restart watch sales as US court pauses ban (WSJ)

• Generative AI’s breakout year produced hefty profits for Nvidia and lofty experiments for others (CNBC)

• The dominant dollar faces a backlash in the oil market (WSJ)

• Russian petroleum exports decline as diesel, naphtha flows ease (BBG)

• US labor market seen cooling in 2024, regional Fed surveys show (BBG)

• Tesla plans revamp of smash hit Model Y from China plant (BBG)

• The pandemic’s E-commerce stars are coping (WSJ)

• It’s a ‘massive student debt strike’ activist says, as millions of borrowers still aren’t making payment (CNBC)

• Bus stations across America are closing (WSJ)

• Jacques Delors, Euro architect as leader of EU, dies at 98 (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• SoftBank will receive ~$7.6B of worth of stock in T-Mobile US for no additional cost as part of an agreement struck when the wireless carrier merged with rival Sprint (BBG) 

• Billionaire Xavier Niel expressed interest in acquiring the Portuguese operations of Patrick Drahi’s Altice telecommunications empire, which may be valued at up to $7.5B (BBG) 

• The NBA approved Mark Cuban’s $3.5B sale of a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks to the family of Miriam Adelson, the controlling shareholder of Las Vegas Sands (BBG) 

• Pipeline operator Williams agreed to acquire natural gas storage assets from an affiliate of Hartree Partners for ~$2B (BBG) 

• Drilling services company Boart Longyear agreed to a takeover by middle market PE firm American Industrial Partners at a ~$371M valuation (WSJ) 

• Exus North America Holdings will acquire American Electric Power and PNM Resources’ joint venture New Mexico Renewable Development, which owns 15 New Mexico solar projects, for $230M (BBG) 

• Germany's Software AG invited bidders for its Trend Miner and Cumulocity software platforms and is looking at options for its Alfabet software (RT)

VC

• Robotics-based homebuilding startup BotBuilt raised a $12.4M seed round (TC)

• AI Redefined, a pioneering force in human-AI collaboration tech, raised $5M in funding led by Engie (BW)

Crypto Corner

• MicroStrategy, which is run by Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor, acquired $616M of Bitcoin; its crypto holdings now exceed $8B (BBG) 

• Bullish bets on Bitcoin by institutional investors reached an all-time high on the CME (CD)

Exec’s Picks

• Twitter user “Private Inequity” shared a great thread for winning in IC as an associate.

• Michael Batnick shared a follow-up on how his 2023 market predictions fared.

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