US stock indexes rallied to third-straight ATHs on continued US-Iran optimism (which faded into the weekend)

Europe's Stoxx 600 gained for a fourth-straight week

Software stocks gained 14% in their best week since 2001

EX FX erased all Iran war losses

LME Index rallied 12% MoM to an ATH

European power futures fell below pre-war levels

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

Strait of Schrödinger

Trade event contracts on Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market

Intel shares recovered all losses from the 2000 dot-com bubble burst (BBG)

Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again (CNBC)

Traders brace for renewed turmoil on Hormuz drama (BBG)

Howard Lutnick told Canada 'they suck' and vowed to void trade deal (FT)

Big Tech stocks are leading a $4T market rebound (BBG)

Apollo's Marc Rowan slammed rivals for fund redemption failures (CNBC)

Traders dial up risk as they put war behind them (BBG)

Systematic hedge funds bought stocks at a record pace last week (RT)

Short squeeze turbocharges equity rally as riskiest stocks soar (BBG)

EM bond sales are soaring again as investors dive back into risk (BBG)

Wealth advisors made more than $2B from private capital fees (FT)

Global VC investment surged to a record $330B in Q1 (KPMG)

Texas VC funding topped Massachusetts for first time ever in Q1(BG)

Citadel Securities is eyeing prediction markets (BBG)

Commodity traders cozy up to Trump after long avoiding politics (BBG)

Vitol posted a $2B profit in Q1 despite Iran war losses (BBG)

Blue Owl founders stopped pledging shares as personal loan collateral (WSJ)

Anthropic CEO visited White House amid rising Mythos model fears (WSJ)

Meta plans to cut 10% of jobs (RT)

Point72 and BlackRock back contest to scout Japanese IB talent (BBG)

Blue Origin launched New Glenn rocket but suffered issues (WSJ)

Co-founders of failed AI startup were charged with fraud (RT)

Learn the exact curriculum used to train analysts at KKR, Blackstone, and Carlyle

Earn a certificate from Wharton Online (your LinkedIn will thank you)

Build a global network of finance professionals that rivals what most people spend $200k on an MBA to get

Chinese state-backed brokerages Orient Securities and Shanghai Securities will merge in a cash and stock deal to create an $85B firm 

American Airlines is not interested in a ~$40B merger with United Airlines

A consortium of European telecom groups Bouygues Telecom, Iliad, and Orange proposed a $24B acquisition of SFR, the French business of indebted telecoms Altice, at a potential $23B valuation

QXO will acquire insulation company TopBuild in a $17B cash and stock deal at a 23% premium to make QXO the second-largest listed building products supplier in US 

Recreational-vehicle supplier Patrick Industries is in talks to combined with rival LCI Industries in a potential $7B all stock deal

José E. Feliciano, the founder of PE firm Clearlake, is set to acquire MLB's San Diego Padres from the Seidler family at a record $3.9B valuation

Architect Capital is set to take a sub-20% minority stake in OnlyFans at an over $3B valuation 

French fuel distributor Rubis is exploring a $2.9B cash and stock merger with trading giant Trafigura's fuel retail business Puma Energy

Abu Dhabi investment fund Axight acquired a significant minority stake in Aussie investment firm La Trobe Financial from Brookfield at a $2.1B valuation

Eli Lilly is in advanced talks to acquire ​cancer biotech Kelonia Therapeutics for over $2B

Japanese logistics firm Nippon Express Holdings will acquire Canada-based Metro Supply Chain Group in a $1.6B deal

$900M-listed German medical packaging maker Gerresheimer rejected a takeover bid ‌from US rival Silgan

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. emerged as the preferred bidder to acquire HSBC's retail unit in Indonesia at a potential $350M valuation

1947 Oil & Gas, the new energy firm of ex-Goldman analyst Jeff Currie, will acquire small Gulf of America producer Renaissance Offshore

German radiopharma firm ITM Isotope Technologies is in talks with PE firms to sell its medical isotope production business 

Bitcoin miner NYDIG is in advanced talks to acquire a former smelter site from US aluminum producer Alcoa

Lionel Messi acquired Spanish division three soccer club Cornellà

Cristiano Ronaldo acquired a 25% stake in Spanish division two soccer club UD Almería in February 

Critical Metals Corp. raised its stake in the Tanbreez rare earth deposit in Greenland from 50% to 92.5% in a deal with shareholder Rimbal

Anthropic is not fielding funding talks with VCs looking to invest at an over $800B valuation

Sam Altman-backed fusion startup Helion Energy sought a $500M investment at a $35B valuation led by OpenAI

Recursive Superintelligence, a four-month-old self-teaching AI startup, raised $500M at a $4B pre-money valuation led by GV

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is in talks to raise over $300M at ‌a $10B valuation  

Sygaldry, a quantum-accelerated AI servers startup, raised $139M across a seed and Series A led by Initialized Capital and Breakthrough Energy Ventures

Loop, a supply-chain AI startup, raised a $95M Series C led by Valor Equity Partners

Mintlify, an AI knowledge infrastructure startup, raised a $45M Series B at a $500M valuation co-led by a16z and Salesforce Ventures

TextQL, an agentic analytics startup, raised $17M from Blackstone, HOF Capital, Neo, Dropbox, and more 

Eigen, an AI startup building a 'mutual friend' platform, raised a $15M seed round led by Benchmark

Creao AI, a 'super agent' AI startup, raised a $10M round led by Prosperity7 Ventures

AlixLabs, a  European developer of Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) solutions for next-generation semiconductor manufacturing, raised a $17.5M Series A and strategic round from Stephen Industries 

SpaceX moved up a vesting schedule for employee shares from May to this week as it moves closer to a record $75B IPO

Jio Platforms, the telecoms unit of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, is set to file for India's biggest IPO ever to raise ~$4B at a ~$150B valuation

Japanese EV battery maker Envision is considering a $2B Hong Kong IPO

Blackstone-backed ad tech firm Liftoff Mobile re-filed for a potential $760M IPO

AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems filed publicly for an IPO

Obesity biotech Kailera Therapeutics surged 63% in its trading debut after raising $625M at a $3.1B market cap in an upsized IPO

Madison Dearborn Partners-backed drone maker AEVEX rose 35% in its trading debut after raising $320M for a $3B market cap in an IPO

Roark Capital picked banks for a potential $2B IPO of Inspire Brands, the owner of Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin', Arby's, Jimmy John's, Baskin-Robbins, and others

Miner Lumina Metals is seeking to raise $250M in a Canada IPO

Malaysian industrial facilities design firm IAQ Group is considering raising $250M in a Malaysia IPO

Medtech Alamar Biosciences climbed 29% in its trading debut after raising $191M at a $1.5B valuation in an upsized IPO

Chinese spatial-design software maker Manycore Tech surged 187% in its trading debut after raising $156M in a Hong Kong IPO

KKR-backed emergency medical services firm GMR Solutions filed for an IPO

Geothermal power firm Fervo Energy filed for an IPO

Biotech Odyssey Therapeutics filed for an IPO

Medtech Mobia Medical filed for an IPO

Permian Basin landowner EagleRock Land filed for an IPO

Uber took an additional 4.5% stake in smaller German rival Delivery Hero from its largest shareholder Prosus for $320M at a 20% premium to raise its stake to 7%

Canadian space domain awareness company NorthStar Earth & Space will merge with Viking Acquisition Corp. I at a $300M valuation

Banks and private credit lenders are competing to provide a $9.5B debt package to back CVC's potential $12.5B LBO of Italian drugmaker Recordati 

Luxury retailer Tory Burch sweetened terms on a $700M leveraged loan meant to finance its repurchase of General Atlantic's stake to a 400 bps premium and 2¢ discount

Telix Pharmaceuticals raised $600M in Australia's biggest convertible bond sale this year

TV shopping network QVC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with plans to restructure its $6.6B debt pile

Singapore real estate tycoon Ching Chiat Kwong is suing bank lenders of collapsed Aussie satellite firm NewSat including SocGen, UBS, and Standard Chartered for $1B for violating loan contracts that led to the firm's collapse

UK PE firm Bridgepoint raised $7.1B for its eight flagship Europe fund

Lululemon founder Chip Wilson is starting an athletic-brand rollup

Abu Dhabi is considering consolidating its Chinese assets within two SWFs L'imad Holding and Mubadala

Flow Capital will put its $150M private credit fund on blockchain

$300M crypto hack triggers DeFi contagion shock

French authorities are providing bodyguard services to crypto execs amid kidnapping spree

The hedge fund pay and talent war just got even more bizarre and the recent poaching drama between Millennium and Capula is here to prove it. Check out Bloomberg's deep dive on the frenzied hedge fund job market.