US stocks inched higher yesterday despite setbacks in US-Iran talks

China fixed yuan at a three-year high versus dollar ahead of Trump's visit

Circle missed Q1 revenue estimates but beat on earnings on $30T of on-chain transactions as USDC begins to dominate the dollar stablecoin space; the firm also launched a new Arc blockchain with backing from a16z, Apollo, BlackRock, and others (CNBC)

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

Trump is leading a high-profile billionaire delegation to China, with some notable snubs and invites on the guest list

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

'NACHO Trade' is taking shape on Wall Street (WSJ)

Trump says US-Iran ceasefire is on 'massive life support' (BBG)

Trump snubbed Jensen Huang from China trip with billionaires (BBG) 

BlackRock's Larry Fink is 'quite bullish' on Venezuela (BBG)

Retail floods into AI chips rally as moves get extreme (BBG)

'Big Short' Michael Burry renewed 'bubble' warnings (CNBC) 

EM investors shrug off Iran war shock (RT)

Hedge funds move in as litigation finance assets slump (BBG)

Wealthy investors are scaling back private credit commitments (AMW)

Hudson River Trading made a record $6.4B in Q1 (FT)

Europe oil majors made $4.75B from Iran war volatility (FT)

Big Tech giants tap overseas debt markets to fund AI buildout (RT)

Satya Nadella testified in the Musk v. Altman trial (CNBC)

Short seller Andrew Left will face jury in market manipulation trial (BBG)

Fitch upgraded Argentina to B- (BBG)

OpenAI will acquire consulting and engineering company Tomoro as part of its $14B PE-backed DeployCo venture to equip businesses with AI

Sony Music will acquire Recognition Music Group, a music rights manager with 45k+ songs including Justin Bieber and Beyonce, from Blackstone for $4B

TA Associates-owned bubble tea chain Gong Cha attracted interest from Bain Capital and General Atlantic for a deal that could fetch $2B

Sports investment firm Bruin Capital bought a 15% stake in sporting events promoter Matchroom Holdings at an over $1.4B valuation

Apollo will acquire Onex-backed live-events business Emerald Holding for $1B cash

Blackstone agreed to acquire a majority stake in Greek online marketplace Skroutz from CVC for $745M, including debt

Builder Dream Finders Homes offered to acquire peer Beazer Homes USA in a $705M cash deal at a 40% premium

I Squared Capital made a $555M all-cash offer for Australian outdoor advertising company oOh!media at a 15% premium weeks after Pacific Equity Partners made a $537M offer at a 65% premium

Allen Family Digital, a unit of media mogul Byron Allen's family office, will acquire a 52% stake in BuzzFeed for $120M cash

$250M-listed action camera maker GoPro is exploring a sale or merger

EON will acquire Ovo Energy to create UK's largest electric utility

Data center energy startup VoltaGrid will acquire key supplier Propell Technologies Group

Apollo will acquire live-events business Questex from MidOcean Partners

Data center energy startup VoltaGrid raised $1B at a $10B valuation from Blackstone and energy infrastructure giant Halliburton

Cowboy Space, the orbital data center and rocket startup of Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, raised a $275M Series B at a $2B valuation led by Index Ventures

Stablecoin giant Circle raised $222M at a $3B valuation in the presale of a token tied to its new Arc blockchain led by a16z

Turkish mobile gaming startup Grand Games raised a $70M Series B led by Balderton 

Frame Security, an Israeli human security and security awareness company, raised $50M in funding led by Index Ventures, Team8, and Picture Capital 

eyeo, a Dutch nanophotonic imaging company, raised a $47M Series A led by Innovation Industries

Fifth Dimension, a UK decision intelligence startup for real assets, raised a $26M Series A led by HV Capital

Finnish quantum software company Algorithmiq raised $21M in a funding led by United Ventures and CDP Venture Capital

Ciridae, an AI OS startup for real economy businesses, raised a $20M seed round led by Accel

CredibleX, a Dubai-based API-first credit-as-a-service platform, raised a $15M+ Series A led by Mubadala

ProcurePro, an end-to-end construction procurement platform, raised $11M in funding led by QIC Ventures

Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals, the refinery unit of Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote, is looking to raise $5B at a $50B valuation in a Nigeria IPO

AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems is seeking to raise $4.8B at a $34B valuation in an upsized IPO

Advent and SWF ADIA-backed German power equipment firm INNIO filed for a US IPO targeting a $15B valuation

Activist Palliser Capital built a stake in UK product testing firm Intertek after it rejected multiple takeover offers from EQT offering a $12B valuation

Geothermal energy developer Fervo Energy is looking to raise $1.8B at a $7.4B valuation in an upsized IPO

Activist Southeastern Asset Management built a 4% stake in $4.4B-listed toy maker Mattel and is calling for a sale to PE

Brazil state-backed payments firm Elo Servicos picked banks for a $500M US IPO

Boutique investment bank Lincoln International is seeking to raise $420M in an IPO

Activist Aspex Management will acquire a 5% stake in Delivery Hero from Dutch tech investor Prosus for $395M at a 22% premium to raise its stake to 14% to close in on Prosus as the biggest shareholder 

Spanish steelmaker Acerinox is exploring a US IPO of its US unit

Steel firm Trasteel Holding will merge with Sizzle Acquisition Corp. II in a $1.3B deal

Autonomous trucking firm PlusAI terminated its merger with Churchill Capital Corp. IX due to market conditions

Verizon has raised $12B from hybrid debt sales this year

Software firm ServiceNow is looking to raise $4B in an investment grade bond sale tied to recent M&A

Hong Kong-based developer PCPD raised $500M in a bond sale led by RRJ Capital and PIMCO

United Airlines is selling $256M of junk-rated munis to fund a new catering center

Zimbabwe's SWF Mutapa Investment Fund is seeking to raise $250M from local lenders to boost gold mining

Rolls-Royce plans to sell euro-denominated debt for the first time since 2020

Alphabet is planning a debut yen bond sale

Amazon is planning a debut Swiss franc bond sale

Hong Kong is turning to last-resort tactics of selling collateral or pushing borrowers into liquidation in an attempt to cut its $25B pile of bad debt

Creditors are circling Fortress-backed struggling Florida high-speed rail Brightline ahead of a potential $6B restructuring, potentially the biggest munis restructuring ever

Peru authorized state-owned Petroperu to take on $2B of private loans to alleviate a liquidity crisis 

Healthcare supplier Accendra Health agreed with creditors to push out maturities of $1.5B of existing debt via debt exchanges

Bankruptcy advisers to collapsed Spirit Airlines have made $80M in fees

Radio station owner Spanish Broadcasting System filed for bankruptcy with plans to hand control to creditors Brigade Capital Management, Man Group, and HIG Capital

ZenX Quant, the Chinese hedge fund of ex-CitSec research chief Han Jiarui, tripled AUM to $2B in just six months

European growth investor Verdane raised a $750M multi-asset CV led by Coller Capital 

KKR will inject $150M into private credit BDC FS KKR Capital Corp and purchase $150M of shares from investors after a group of banks led by JPMorgan cut a credit facility to FS KKR by $650M 

Abry Private Debt and Coller Capital acquired a $330M private credit portfolio

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong will address Republican senators 

American Bankers Association is lobbying against the crypto market structure bill

Greenland Energy Company (NASDAQ: GLND) is looking to unlock 2 million acres of the Jameson Land Basin. They are pairing decades of legacy seismic data with modern reprocessing to chase what independent engineers (Sproule ERCE) say could be up to ~13 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Check them out to see what the opportunity holds.*

Bloomberg published two really interesting deep dives into Epstein's life and ventures (including the creepy illegal ones)