US stocks dragged lower yesterday on faltering US-Iran deal hopes

Pokémon cards have outperformed both the S&P 500 and Bitcoin YTD

CoreWeave beat Q2 estimates as revenue more than doubled on booming AI infrastructure demand, including new business from Anthropic and Meta (CNBC)

Supermicro reported surging profit and a doubling of sales in Q4 as its customer and product mix translates into better margins (WSJ)

CAVA beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates on rising foot traffic and a rapid rebound from the "explosive diarrhea" outbreak (WSJ)

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

Zuck is back in founder mode

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

Phoebe Gates was aware of fraud at her startup for seven months (BBG)

CitSec says to prepare for a reload on levered stock bets (BBG)

Norway's $2T SWF says entire value could disappear in market collapse (RT)

More than 10 clients signed up to Trump's insider trading-as-a-service (WSJ)

Private credit firms clamp down on loan sweeteners (WSJ)

Buying opportunity forms around S&P skeptics' refusal to give up (BBG)

EM investment flows turn positive as equity exodus slow (RT)

Resilient Europe turns into a winning bet for investors (BBG)

Europe's faltering defense stocks rally is tipped to reignite (BBG)

Hong Kong tech index is set for overhaul with more firms, AI in focus (BBG)

Singapore shrugs off Iran war as AI boom buoys growth (FT)

AI-focused hedge fund VARA dropped 44% in July on stock plunge (BBG)

JPMorgan to keep Asia hiring pace after corporate bank growth tops 20% (RT)

Deutsche becomes first European clearing bank for yuan (FT)

CME will launch the world's first index-based hockey futures (RT)

Retail investors sold SpaceX shares for first time on Friday (RT)

Nvidia's show of financial force soothes jittery credit markets (BBG)

OpenAI's ex-CFO and COO Brad Lightcap stepped down (WSJ)

Former hedge fund exec pleaded guilty to embezzling $3M (BBG)

Brazil named two Goldman execs as suspects of fraud (RT)

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The Jeff Bezos and Eduardo Saverin-backed consortium of Amit Bhatia, the son-in-law of steel giant ArcelorMittal's founder, is close to a deal for a 30% stake in Liverpool FC from Fenway Sports Groups at a $6B valuation

Ari Emanuel's events platform MARI agreed to acquire UK theater giant ATG Entertainment from Providence Equity Partners for $6B, including debt

Energy firms Phillips 66, Kinder Morgan, and HF Sinclair will proceed with a $5B Western Gateway Pipeline project in a three-way JV

Canada's H&R REIT agreed ​to a $4.8B breakup transaction ‌under which GO Residential REIT will acquire its US residential portfolio and a group including Blackstone, PSP, Crestpoint and ​entities tied to CEO Tom Hofstedter ​will buy other assets

Activist Anson Funds Management is urging $3.5B-listed Lionsgate Studios to pursue a sale

Francisco Partners will acquire commerce solutions provider Moneris ​Solutions from Royal Bank of Canada and BMO Financial for $1.45B

$1.2B-listed online car marketplace ACV Auctions is exploring a sale after receiving takeover interest

Korea's Hanwha Aerospace made a preliminary offer to acquire Australian shipbuilder Austal's US operations for $1.2B

TPG Capital agreed to acquire a 61.2% stake in Korea's largest car-rental company Lotte Rental for from conglomerate Lotte for $925M at a 32% premium months after regulators blocked an earlier takeover

Air taxi firm Joby acquired defense tech firm Resonant ​Sciences for $500M 

Aurora Cannabis is reviewing an unsolicited $270M offer from rival Curaleaf at a 45% premium

Trading platform eToro will buy rival TradeZero in a $230M cash-and-stock ‌deal 

Canada's Fortuna Mining agreed to buy the Bambadji gold project in Senegal from Barrick Mining and IAMGOLD for $200M 

The controlling Lewis family invested $135M in a share sale of UK soccer club Tottenham Hotspur whereas minority shareholder and former chairman Daniel Levy missed a deadline to participate 

Italian fashion group Giorgio Armani's planned 15% stake sale may be delayed past the March 2027 deadline set in late founder Giorgio Armani's will

Uber divested from long-time robot delivery partner Serve Robotics

River AI, the personal AI startup of xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, raised $1.1B led by General Catalyst ​and AMP

Neros Technologies, a defense technology company, raised $250M in new funding at a $2.5B valuation led by Sequoia

Trajectory, an AI research lab, raised a $40M round at a $300M post-money valuation led by Sequoia

Partiful, a social event planning and digital invitations startup, raised a $20M Series A led by a16z

Axle, an AI insurance startup and clearinghouse, raised a $17.5M Series A led by Base10 Partners

River Markets, a prediction-market trading platform for professional traders, raised an $8.5M seed round led by Haun Ventures

Entravel Group, a travel infrastructure company, raised a $7.5M round co-led by Ethereal Ventures and Finality Capital

Singapore-based DayOne Data Centers confidentially filed for a $5B US IPO

Exor, a family office linked to Italy's Agnelli family, raised its stake in $26B-listed Dutch medical technology company Royal Philips to 22%

The retail portion of Chinese robot maker Unitree Technology's $900M China IPO is 5,500x oversubscribed

KKR-backed supply chain ‌firm LEAP India's $260M India IPO is fully subscribed

Veritas Capital-backed public health software firm Gainwell Technologies is seeking to raise $5.8B in junk debt to refinance the entire capital structure 

General Motors secured a $4.5B financing arrangement to avoid parts shortages

NYSE-parent ICE sold $3.75B of investment grade bonds to fund its $6B of acquisition MarketAxess

AI infrastructure company CoreWeave raised a $2.6B DDTL 

MLB's New York Yankees raised a $2.6B financing from Apollo Sports Capital

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is planning a $1.1B munis sale

Indian conglomerate Adani Group secured a loan an $800M from overseas lenders to help fund expansion for its data center JV AdaniConneX

Blue Owl sold $750M of high-grade debt to pay down credit lines

Fraud-accused metals trader Radiant World is seeking to sell a $150M stockpile of aluminum at a small discount to boost liquidity

Brazilian steelmaker CSN got enough support from bondholders to push through a $1B debt exchange at its CSN Inova Ventures unit

Latvian airline Air Baltic outlined plans for a $440M debt-for-equity swap

Bondholders of Brazilian petrochemicals giant Braskem are pressing Brazilian state-owned oil firm Petrobras to inject fresh capital to help stave off a bankruptcy filing ahead of a deadline 

VC firm Accel raised $3.5B across four funds for global early-stage investments

David Sacks's Craft Ventures is seeking to raise $1B for its first fund since leaving the Trump administration

UK PE firm Exponent raised an $865M CV for Irish electric engineering company H&MV Engineering from Apollo's Pantheon and SQ Capital

Industrial PE firm Continuim Equity Partners raised $550M for its third fund in just 32 days

AI-focused 224 Ventures launched with $100M and plans to raise over $80M for its early-stage core fund; Meta's ex-chief AI scientist Yann LeCun joined the firm

SEC is set to unveil major crypto plans as Clarity Act stalls

UK regulators prepare framework for tokenized gold

With YTD issuance up significantly in both tech and communications, will the surge of AI hyperscalers continue to alter the complexion of the market? Mizuho's Victor Forte joined Moshe Tomkiewicz to analyze the shifting landscape ahead of a major tech earnings rollout. Learn more.

WSJ published an interesting article on the million-dollar talent wars for fresh math graduates. Funny how Wall Street and Silicon Valley are competing for the same tiny pool of geniuses.

Larry Swedroe shared some great insights on whether private credit volatility is understated.