US stocks closed mostly flat yesterday as traders digested historic dissent in J Pow's last rate decision as Fed chair while awaiting Big Tech earnings

Traders boosted odds of a Fed rate hike by April 2027 to 50% 

MSCI EM stocks index hit a fresh ATH after gaining 15% this month

Gold fell for a third-straight day 

WTI rebounded past $100/bbl for the first time in three weeks

Yen fell to the lowest since mid-2024 versus dollar 

Microsoft beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates on surging demand in its Azure cloud unit and growth in its Copilot AI for enterprise Office users; the firm forecast $190B in FY capex amid soaring memory prices (CNBC)

Alphabet smashed Q1 earnings and revenue estimates on surging cloud business as enterprise AI became the primary cloud growth driver for the first time; the firm also raised FY capex forecasts to $190B (CNBC)

Amazon smashed Q1 earnings and revenue estimates on a 28% surge in cloud computing revenue for its fastest growth in over three years (CNBC)

Meta beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates but posted lower-than-expected capex and missed on user growth due to 'internet disruptions in Iran' (CNBC)

Qualcomm beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates and hinted at a major deal with a top hyperscaler and rising forward demand in China (CNBC) 

Samsung posted a record 8x surge in Q1 operating profit on higher chip prices as an AI boom leads to a supply crunch (RT)

Starbucks issued a Q1 beat-and-raise on its second-straight quarter for foot traffic growth as new CEO Brian Niccol's turnaround takes shape (CNBC)

Chipotle beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates as a revamped menu led to a surprise rise in ‌comparable sales (CNBC)

Carvana beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates on sustained demand ‌for second-hand vehicles (CNBC)

Ford issued a Q1 beat-and-raise as it expects $1.3B in tariff refunds to offset higher costs (CNBC)

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

J Pow plans to stay on the Fed Board of Governors as a symbolic gesture to Fed independence

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

A JPMorgan woman exec was accused of turning a junior male colleague into her sex slave (DM)

US rejected Iran's offer and will maintain blockade until a nuclear deal (AX)

Fed held rates steady at 3.5%-3.75% with highest dissent since 1992 (CNBC)

J Pow will stay on the Fed Board of Governors following chair term end (WSJ)

Taiwan overtook Canada as world's sixth-largest stock market (BBG)

AI-led Asia stock rally masks deeper damage from Iran war (BBG)

Japan firms are selling a record amount of euro debt (BBG)

Ken Griffin suggests retail investors don't understand private credit (FT)

Wells Fargo is set to level up in trading in a Wall Street comeback (WSJ)

France's Ardian emerges as secondaries savior for Canada's Maple 8 (BBG)

Goldman blocked Claude access for Hong Kong bankers (RT)

Carlyle will sponsor F1 team Red Bull Racing for $10M/year (BBG)

Only Musk can fire Musk from SpaceX (RT)

Musk called himself 'a fool' for seeding OpenAI (FT)

lululemon founder raised doubts on new CEO amid proxy fight (RT)

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Apartment REITs AvalonBay Communities and Equity Residential are considering a potential $50B merger 

Finnish elevator maker Kone agreed to acquire Advent and Cinven-backed rival TK Elevator in a $34.4B cash-and-stock deal, including debt, in Europe's biggest PE exit ever

European PE firm EQT is preparing a third improved offer for UK product testing firm Intertek after its previous $11.2B offer was rejected

Blackstone will invest $2.3B in European renewables developer Eurowind Energy

Italian family-owned Chiesi Farmaceutici agreed to acquire US-listed KalVista Pharmaceuticals for $1.9B cash at a 40% premium

PE firm Apax emerged as the frontrunner to acquire UK ​exhibition business CloserStill Media from Providence Equity for $1.62B

Spanish travel software firm Amadeus will buy the public security arm of  Advent-backed biometrics firm Idemia in a $1.4B deal

Arlington Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in nuclear engineering company Enercon from Oaktree for $1.25B and will merge it with Pond & Co

Vornado Realty Trust will acquire a 49% stake in Manhattan's Park Avenue Plaza from China's Closer Properties at a $1.1B valuation

IT consultant Cognizant will acquire AI-first smaller peer Astreya for $600M

Pacific Equity Partners offered to acquire Australian outdoor advertising company oOh!media for $537M at a 65% premium

Crypto firm MoonPay acquired Israeli crypto security startup Sodot in a $100M stock deal

Ares acquired a 33% stake in the Rover natural gas pipeline from ​Blackstone 

Italian tire maker Pirelli agreed to acquire a 30% stake in Swedish AI mapping/planning firm Univrses with an option to reach a majority stake

PayPal plans to separate Venmo into a standalone business as potential buyers circle

​Moroccan family-owned Holmarcom Finance Company agreed to acquire a majority stake in Moroccan bank BMCI from French lender BNP Paribas

Anthropic is weighing a fresh funding at an over $900B valuation

Rogo, the AI platform for finance, raised a $160M Series D led by Kleiner Perkins

Hightouch, the leader in data and AI for marketing, raised $150M Series D at a $2.75B valuation led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and Bain Capital Venture 

Parallel, an AI agent-tool startup, raised a $100M Series B at a $2B valuation led by Sequoia

Scout AI, a frontier lab for defense, raised a $100M Series A led by Align Ventures and Draper Associates

Firestorm, a defense startup building containerized drone manufacturing platforms, raised an $82M Series B from Washington Harbour Partners, Litquidity, and others

All3, a construction robotics and AI startup, raised a $25M seed round led by RTP Global

Pursuit, a startup that helps companies sell to government, raised a $22M seed round led by Mike Rosengarten

Agentic data engineering platform definity raised a $12M Series A led by GreatPoint Ventures

Kibu, a human network and app-based platform, raised a $10.5M seed round co-led by Cubit Capital and Construct Capital 

Shapes, a social chat app that integrates AI characters into group conversations, raised an $8M seed round led by Lightspeed

SoftBank will create and IPO a standalone AI robotics and infrastructure venture called Roze AI in US at a potential $100B valuation 

Apollo-owned auto parts supplier Tenneco is preparing for an IPO that could fetch a $14B valuation 

Shares of Bill Ackman's closed-end fund Pershing Square USA fell 20% while hedge fund Pershing Square traded flat after their combined $5B IPO

$4.5B US-listed online travel platform MakeMyTrip is considering an India listing 

Universal Music Group, under pressure from Bill Ackman's Pershing Square, will sell half of its $3.1B stake in Spotify to fund buybacks

Murdoch-backed Indian education services firm Allen Career Institute is considering an India IPO; Murdoch's India investment platform Bodhi Tree Systems took a 36% stake in Allen in 2022 for $600M

Uzbekistan's SWF UzNIF is set to raise $590M at a $1.95B valuation in its London IPO

Chinese truck maker XCMG is considering a $500M Hong Kong listing

A Nevada data center tied to Nvidia and backed by Tract Capital and Fleet Data Centers sold $4.6B of junk bonds

Fortress Investment Group will purchase up to $1.25B of consumer loans originated through AI lending platform Upstart 

Data center developer SE Cosmos is selling $1B of junk bonds for a project leased to a SoftBank subsidiary

Tacora Capital Management, the ABF firm of subprime MBS trader Keri Findley, struck a deal to buy up to $300M worth of borrowers' future home equity from lender Point Digital

Bankrupt Purdue Pharma was fined $5.5B, paving way for the firm to dissolve in bankruptcy and use assets to fund a $7.4B opioid settlement

Two creditor groups to bankrupt Spirit Airlines approved a $500M bailout plan from the US government but one lender group including Citadel is pushing back

CVC is injecting another $250M into Lipton Teas to stave off a potential debt restructuring; CVC acquired Lipton from Unilever for $5.2B in 2022

The Barclay family, former owners of the Telegraph newspaper, avoided bankruptcy after reaching a last-minute agreement with HSBC over $190M in overdue debts

BMW i Ventures launched a new $300M fund to invest in automotive-related AI

Danish physical early-stage VC KOMPAS VC raised $190M for its second fund

Blackstone launched a dedicated AI unit Blackstone N1 to house its AI and growth investments

Starwood REIT halted investor redemptions 

Hyperliquid emerges as hottest rival in prediction markets and crypto trading space

Meta launched crypto stablecoin payouts for creators

A judge rejected SBF's motion for a new trial

Ben Carlson published an interesting take on why permabears are more wrong than not.

FT published an interesting deep dive on how Citigroup's $52M hire of executive vice chair and head of banking Vis Raghavan was forced out of JPMorgan over his behavior.

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