US stocks closed lower yesterday as expectations of a US-Iran deal faded

Gold climbed to a nine-week high

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

Iran is trying to stonewall a deal until after Trump's term ends lmao

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Hopes of any Iran deal are fading (BBG)

Kevin Warsh sold all promised stakes (BBG)

Trump downplayed talks with Warsh amid Fed independence doubts (BBG)

PE is stuck with 33,575 unsold businesses (NYT)

Private credit is under growing strain despite upbeat industry tone (WSJ)

Investors are abandoning hedges to chase soaring stocks (BBG)

EM stock valuations are now less than half of S&P 500's (BBG)

SEC exempts data center bonds from key securitization rules (BBG)

BlackRock signed a deal with labor unions for AI construction jobs (BBG)

Meta launches new AI model as Zuck champions open-weight push (RT)

OpenAI's head of ethics quit in less than one year (FT)

India's Gautam Adani won dismissal of US securities fraud charges (BBG)

Mamdani invited ex-Lazard and UBS bankers to his new business panel (BBG)

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GameStop is considering withdrawing its $56B bid for eBay and may propose a partnership or JV instead

Nvidia will invest up to $3B for a 30% stake in Blackstone-backed ​power infrastructure developer Lancium

Guotai Haitong Securities, the Chinese parent of international brokerage Guotai Junan ​International, offered to take the unit private at a $3.65B valuation at a 45% premium

Samsung SDI will buyout GM's 50% stake in their $3.5B EV battery JV in Indiana

Gold miner Newmont agreed to pay rival Barrick $1.95B in a deal which will see both firms contribute assets to their Nevada JV to pave way for Barrick's planned IPO of its North America gold assets

Blackstone-backed ‌Safe Harbor Marinas is nearing a deal to acquire peer MarineMax for $1.5B, including debt, at a 45% premium

Morgan Stanley-backed German renewable project developer PNE is struggling to fetch bids at its desired $1.5B valuation

Chip packaging firm Amkor Technology is considering a sale of its China business which could fetch $1B-$1.5B

Jazz Pharmaceuticals will acquire epilepsy-focused Actio Biosciences in ​a $1.3B deal 

Industrial conglomerate Teledyne Technologies will buy X-ray firm Varex Imaging for $1.1B, including debt, at a 50% premium

I Squared Capital agreed to acquire Australian outdoor advertising company oOh!Media at a $635M equity valuation after a bidding war against Pacific Equity Partners, Bain Capital, ​and Oaktree

Purvah Green Power, a unit of Indian conglomerate RPSG Group, will acquire some solar from ReNew Solar Power at a $510M enterprise valuation

Packaged food company Flowers Foods is seeking to divest its baked goods business ​Tastykake for potentially $350M

A Venezuelan party will acquire the Venezuela interests of Harry Sargeant III's offshore oil company Bluewave Properties in a $300M deal after sanction pressure from US

Australian betting company Tabcorp agreed to acquire BetMakers Technology Group at a $190M valuation

Web comics platform Webtoon Entertainment will acquire a 60% stake in a Korean gaming studio RI Games Holdings for $100M

Archer Aviation will acquire the Wisk, SkyGrid, and Insitu units, which develop technology for flying taxis and drones, from Boeing in exchange for a 20% stake 

​Trinidad and Tobago's state-owned National Gas Company will acquire a 20% stake in the Venezuelan portion of the Cocuina-Manakin natural gas field from BP

Beyonce​ acquired full control ‌of the SirDavis whisky brand two years after acquiring it from LVMH

OpenAI bought back $7B worth of employee shares at an $852B valuation

Erebor Bank, the Thiel-backed tech-focused bank of Palmer Luckey, is set to raise $1.5B at an $8B valuation from 8VC, Lux Capital, Valor Equity Partners, a16z, and others

UK low-cost drone startup Cambridge Aerospace raised a $300M Series C at a $3.4B valuation led by DFJ Growth

Pro Padel League raised a $15M Series A led by CD&R president and Charlotte Hornets owner Rick Schnall

Corma, an AI cybersecurity startup, raised a $60M seed round led by Sequoia 

VibeIQ, an AI-native product decision platform for apparel and consumer goods, raised $22.5M in growth financing led by Volition Capital 

Baselayer, an AI-driven business verification company, raised a $20M Series A led by Koro Capital and M13

Discovered Materials, an AI agents startup for discovering and accelerating new materials for semiconductor chips, raised a $9M seed round led by Lightspeed India Partners 

Intel plans to raise $20B in an upsized share sale, its first since listing 55 years ago

Duke Energy Corp. plans to raise $1.75B in a share sale

Trive Capital-backed Sensor technology company Lyntris is seeking to raise $530M at a $2.5B valuation in an IPO

Vietnamese media and entertainment group DatVietVAC is pursuing a local IPO at a $232M valuation

Apollo, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield, KKR, and Goldman Sachs are in talks to support Nvidia with a $500B AI infrastructure investing package

Cloudflare is seeks to sell $2.2B of convertible notes

IBM raised $2B in a Canadian bond sale

BlackRock private credit BDC TCP Capital Corp. is selling a $523M portfolio of private credit stakes to shore up its balance sheet

AI infrastructure firm Global AI raised $440M in debt financing led by JPMorgan

Indian auto parts manufacturer Gabriel India is in talks with foreign banks for a local-FX bond sale to fund two acquisitions worth a combined $330M

The Colburn School, a performing arts school in Los Angeles, plans to raise $117M in the biggest munis sale by a private school in two years 

A consortium including Glencore proposed a rescue deal for troubled Canadian miner Sherritt International

Troubled luxury yacht maker The Italian Sea Group launched a sale process as part of its restructuring efforts

Fraud-marred sports-focused PE firm 777 Partners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy weeks after creditors sought to liquidate remaining assets 

Mido Capital, the new VC firm of ex-a16z partner Bryan Kim, plans to raise $100M for a debut fund

NYSE is developing an on-chain settlement platform for tokenized securities

The AI trade is stealing crypto's thunder

Zuck published a 6,500-word manifesto on his vision for AI. Support for open-source, open-weight models seems to be a strong theme. Read it here.

Hopefully this doesn't involve many of you but some parents (especially from the Northeast) are paying upwards of $12,000 dollars for sorority rush coaches for their daughters who are enrolling in SEC schools. Absurd but intriguing nonetheless.