US stocks pulled back from ATHs yesterday after J Pow's comments stoked valuation concerns

Canada's TSX index hit an ATH

Oil snapped a four-day drop as threats to Russian supplies mount

Indian rupee hit a new low versus dollar

Micron beat Q4 earnings and revenue estimates as overall sales surged 46% on booming AI demand, though data center unit sales fell 22%; the firm gave optimistic Q1 guidance on momentum in advanced memory chips amid growing competition in AI hardware (CNBC)

AutoZone missed Q4 earnings and revenue estimates as a significant LIFO charge weighed on profits, though same-store sales rose despite tariff-driven price hikes amid resilient repair demand (WSJ)

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

Traders are confident in a second rate cut even after J Pow's comments yesterday.

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Jeff Bezos' dad's family office hired a CEO (WSJ)

J Pow said assets prices are 'fairly highly valued' (CNBC)

J Pow takes middle ground on rates in speech (BBG)

Fed is considering an inflation range rather than a hard 2% target (BBG)

Rise in fed funds rate signals potential liquidity strain (BBG)

Black swan manager sees huge US stock rally before 1929-like crash (WSJ)

Wall Street hedges backfire as rates volatility sinks (BBG)

KKR held its first-ever board meeting in Asia with Japan in focus (RT) 

Apollo has never been more bullish on Europe (BBG)

Recoveries for PE-backed debt are down from long-term averages (BBG)

Majority of FTSE firms considered listings abroad (BBG)

US IPO volume hit $7.6B in its busiest month in four years (BBG)

US investment-grade bond market is seeing its busiest September ever (BBG)

A typhoon is delaying Hong Kong IPOs (BBG)

Saudi Arabia will free stocks from local grip in major equity push (BBG)

Vietnam's IPO and stocks rally fails to stir foreign investors (RT)

UK 30Y gilt sale saw the fewest orders since 2022

OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announced a $500B data centers plan (RT)

Ex-Trader sued TD Bank over one-year non-compete (BBG)

UBS whittled $5.3B French tax evasion fine down to $990M (FT)

RadioShack's revival turned into a ponzi scheme (BBG)

New US visa fees spur offshoring talks and hiring turmoil (RT)

Trump says Ukraine can take back all lost territory (WSJ)

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KKR and Canada's CPPIB agreed to acquire a 45% stake in utility Sempra's infrastructure arm for $10B

Blackstone agreed to acquire a 49.9% stake in the second development phase of Sempra's Port Arthur export terminal in Texas for $7B

US is seeking a 10% equity stake in Lithium Americas as it renegotiates terms of their $2.3B DOE loan 

Nordic PE firm Axcel is weighing a sale of IT consulting firm Emagine at an $825M valuation

Korean biotech Celltrion's US subsidiary acquired oncology-biotech Imclone Systems from Eli Lilly for $330M

Axtria, a biotech-focused data analytics and cloud company, raised a $240M strategic investment from India's Kedaara Capital

Media giant Hearst received shareholder approval to acquire 140-year-old newspaper DallasNews Corp. for $88M at a 300% premium

Bank of Montreal is exploring a sale of some US branches

UK fintech Revolut is weighing buying a US bank in global expansion push

Stablecoin giant Tether is in talk to raise $15B-$20B at a $500B valuation

Payments fintech Stripe is in talks to buyback stock at a $106.7B valuation, above its 2021 peak

Indian food deliver company Swiggy exited its 12% stake in Indian ride-hailing platform Rapido in a $270M in secondary share sale at a $2.3B valuation led by Prosus and WestBridge Capital

Nexus, a developer of renewable energy storage systems, raised $220M in funding led by Goldman Sachs

Distyl AI, a startup helping companies become AI-native, raised a $175M round at a $1.8B valuation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, DST Global, Coatue, and Dell Technologies Capital

Fnality, a startup replacing the SWIFT network with blockchain infrastructure, raised a $136M Series C led by WisdomTree, Citi, Bank of America, KBC Group, Temasek, and Tradeweb

Auterion, a startup providing software to military drones, raised $130M led by Bessemer Venture Partners

Crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash raised a $104M Series D-2 at a $1B valuation led by Interactive Brokers

Saudi Arabian vacation rental company Gathern raised a $72M Series B from Sanabil Investments and Saudi Technology Ventures

Cardless, a startup helping businesses create and launch branded credit cards, raised a $60M Series C led by Spark Capital

Morse Micro, a provider of WiFi solutions for IoT, raised a $59M Series C led by MegaChips

Hydrostor, a startup working on long duration energy storage, raised $55M in funding from Export Development Canada

Genomines, a startup extracting metal from plants, raised a $45M Series A from Forbion, Engine Ventures, and more

Obot AI, a startup building secure, enterprise-ready platforms for the emerging Model Context Protocol (MCP) standard, raised a $35M seed round led by Mayfield Fund and Nexus Venture Partners

Ultralytics, an open-source vision AI company, raised a $30M Series A led by Elephant

Dutch food tech startup Revyve raised a $28M Series B led by ABN AMRO and Invest-NL

Greptile, a code validation platform, raised a $25M Series A led by Benchmark Capital

AI-driven manufacturing platform Atomic Industries raised a $25M Series A led by MaC Venture Capital and DTX Ventures

Extend, a spend and expense management platform, raised $20M in funding led by B Capital

Digital asset banking infrastructure startup Stablecore raised a $20M round led by Norwest

TELO Trucks, a maker of EV mini-trucks for US cities, raised a $20M Series A led by Yves Behar and Tesla co-founder Marc Tarpenning

Insify, a startup reinventing insurance for Europe freelancers and SMEs, raised a $19M Series B led by Evli Growth Partners

Claims management platform Reserv raised a $16M Series B extension led by QBE Ventures

Rocket.new, an Indian AI-powered app development platform, raised a $15M seed round led by Salesforce Ventures

Sunhat, a startup helping enterprises automatically validate and share ESG data, raised a $10.8M Series A led by CommerzVentures

AI-driven data protection solutions startup InCountry raised a $10M round led by Arbor Ventures

Salt AI, a startup using AI to improve life sciences and health tech industries, raised a $10M round led by Morpheus Ventures

Track3D, a startup using AI to help construction projects, raised a $10M Series A led by Ironspring Ventures

Testkube, a continuous testing platform, raised an $8M Series A led by Insight Partners

AI-powered direct indexing platform Tilt raised a $7.1M seed round led by Portage and Lerer Hippeau

Cloudburst, a startup building an off-chain crypto intelligence platform, raised a $7M Series A led by Borderless Capital

Alchemy, a startup developing advanced materials and nanotech, raised $6M from NameSilo Technologies, Pembroke, and others

Wexler.ai, a European AI platform for complex litigation, raised a $5.3M seed round led by Pear VC

AI-powered legal intake platform Superpanel raised a $5.3M seed round co-led by Outlander VC and Field Ventures

Catena, an API for telematics and logistics data, raised a $5M seed round led by Floating Point

Dutch state-owned grid operator German unit Tennet Germany will raise $11.B at a $47.B enterprise valuation in a private placement to SWFs in Norway, Netherlands, and Asia 

Kenya plans to raise $1.15B from Kenya Pipeline in the nation's largest IPO in 17 years

India's second-largest asset manager ICICI Prudential Asset Management began investor roadshows for its India IPO to raise $1.1B at an $11B valuation

Dubai's ALEC Engineering & Contracting raised $381M at a at $1.9B valuation in its IPO

Swedish pension fund Sjätte AP-fonden is seeking to sell a 10% stake in healthcare firm Asker Healthcare for $360M

Building materials firm Kingspan Group is weighing an Amsterdam IPO of its advanced building systems unit Advnsys

Home improvement retailer Lowe's sold $5B of bonds to help fund its $8.8B acquisition of Foundation Building Materials

French carmaker Renault drew $4B of orders for its debut $1B green bond sale

JPMorgan is leading a $1.35B debt financing deal to support Advent International-backed combination of software business Xplor Technologies and Clubessential Holdings

UBS raised $824M in an Aussie-dollar AT1 bond sale

Struggling Chinese developer Seazen Group sold a $160M two-year note at a 13% YTM

Macau gambling firm SJM Holdings is preparing its first public debt offering in four years with a $141M offshore yuan-denominated bond sale

Emeis, the French nursing-home operator that restructured two years ago, is creating a real estate partnership with Farallon Capital and TwentyTwo Real Estate to cut debt by $830M

Spirit Airlines signed a tentative deal with its biggest aircraft lessor to give back unused planes to shore up cash 

Binance-founder CZ's family office YZi Labs is planning to open to external investors

Dutch pension MN is seeking to sell $590M in PE LP stakes 

Software-focused PE firm STG Partners is seeking to raise an $850M sophomore fund

Ex-BlackRock APAC fundamental fixed income CIO Neeraj Set, is looking to raise $700M for 3R Investment Management, a L/S and event-driven EM-focused credit hedge fund

Crypto VC Archetype raised a $100M third fund to back early blockchain startups

SEC is eyeing new rules for crypto trading by exemptions

Morgan Stanley partnered with crypto infrastructure firm Zerohash to let clients trade crypto

Europe's market regulator is open to a one-stop shop for crypto regulation

Hedge fund Marshall Wace sued to stop crypto data provider Lukka from moving ahead with new financing

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