US stocks continued to rally as traders remained optimistic for a US-Iran deal

UK sold 10Y gilts at a 4.916% yield, the highest since 2008

JPMorgan beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates as the software and Iran turmoil contributed to record-breaking results in equities, fixed income, FX, and commodities trading, alongside a surge in IB and ECM activity (CNBC)

Citigroup beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates as strong trading results and progress in its turnaround efforts contributed to its best quarterly revenue in a decade, though IB results came in light (CNBC)

Wells Fargo beat Q1 earnings estimates but missed on revenue and posted disappointing net interest income and non-interest income as the bank reworks its business mix in a bid to accelerate growth (BBG)

BlackRock Q1 profit surged 46% on an 8% rise in investment fees (WSJ)

Johnson & Johnson issued a Q1 beat-and-raise as strong demand for cancer drug Darzalex and psoriasis treatment Tremfya offset a steep sales drop in its blockbuster autoimmune drug Stelara (CNBC)

CarMax met Q4 earnings and revenue estimates but paused buybacks for a turnaround plan and announced plans to lower prices, causing shares to tank 15% (WSJ)

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

Diplomatic efforts between US and Iran are pointing to optimistic signs of progress. Maybe. At least for stocks

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

US-Iran peace talks could resume soon (CNBC)

Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh disclosed over $100M in assets (CNBC)

Kevin Warsh's confirmation hearing will begin next week (BBG)

Wall Street banks smashed records as Iran war drives trading boom (FT)

S&P 500 is set to deliver bumper earnings despite Iran war (FT)

Ken Griffin says Iran war threatens a global recession (RT)

UBS CEO Ermotti may stay until late-2027 amid succession delays (RT)

Singapore's interbank rates approach four-year lows on haven demand (BBG)

PwC plans to overhaul its global consulting business (FT)

Investors are questioning OpenAI's $852B valuation (FT)

OpenAI debuted a new cyber model in response to Anthropic's Mythos (BBG)

Google DeepMind hired a philosopher to prepare for AI consciousness (SA)

L&W average partner pay rose to a record $8.7M last year (FT)

$125B-listed Italian lender UniCredit and $45B-listed German peer Commerzbank are at odds over valuations amid merger talks

Amazon will acquire satellite operator Globalstar in an $11.6B cash deal 

$9B UK-listed product testing firm Intertek Group is exploring a breakup of its testing and assurance units from its energy and infrastructure divisions

Chinese state-owned coal miner Yancoal Australia agreed to acquire an 80% stake in the Kestrel coking coal mine in Queensland from EMR Capital and Adaro Capital in a $2.4B deal

German construction software firm Nemetschek agreed to acquire peer HCSS from Thoma Bravo at a $2.4B valuation; Thoma Bravo will get a 28% stake in the segment holding HCSS' assets

Austrian lender Bawag Group agreed to acquire Irish bank Permanent TSB in a $1.9B all-cash deal to end government ownership for the first time since 2008

Commodities trading giant Gunvor's outgoing owner Torbjörn Törnqvist received a ~$1.2B cash payment as part of a hasty MBO of the firm 

Abu Dhabi's state-owned oil giant ADNOC is in talks to acquire Shell's gas station network in South Africa for ~$1B 

EV maker Lucid named a new CEO and raised $750M in fresh funds from its biggest backers including Saudi's PIF and Uber 

German stock exchange operator Deutsche Börse acquired a 1.5% stake in crypto exchange Kraken for $200M at a $13.3B valuation

Science safety firm UL Solutions will acquire electrical and electronics testing unit MET Labs from laboratory testing group Eurofins Scientific 

Canada-based Colombia-focused O&G firm Parex Resources beat out rival GeoPark to acquire assets from Frontera Energy and Colombia state-owned Ecopetrol

Blue Owl's GP Strategic Capital is nearing a to take a minority stake in French financial services-focused PE firm BlackFin Capital Partners

Construction equipment giant Caterpillar acquired self-driving EV tractor startup Monarch Tractor

Instacart acquired Colombian grocery tech firm Instaleap

Baltimore non-profit Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism will acquire struggling newspaper Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Block Communications to keep the publication alive

Anthropic is attracting VC funding offers at an $800B valuation to match OpenAI

Struggling Swedish green steel startup Stegra raised $1.6B to fund a new steel plant in a round led by Sweden's Wallenberg family

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

nEye.ai, an integrated optical interconnects company, raised an $80M Series C led by Sutter Hill Ventures 

Bluefish, an agentic marketing platform for Fortune 500 brands, raised a $43M Series B co-led by Threshold Ventures and NEA

Pillar, a financial risk management platform for commodity-driven businesses, raised a $20M seed round led by a16z

AlphaNet, an AI-powered quantitative trading platform, raised a $10M seed round led by Joffre Capital

OpenGradient, a decentralized AI infrastructure company, raised a $9.5M round from a16z crypto and others

Nava, an AI agent trust and autonomous payments startup, raised an $8.3M seed round co-led by Polychain and Archetype

Debbie, a consumer rewards startup, raised a $5.3M seed round led by TruStage Ventures

UK fintech SumUp Payments is lining up banks for a London IPO at a potential $10B valuation

Norway's energy giant Equinor cut its stake in renewables developer Scatec from 16% to 8% in a $170M block trade

Service Long March Tyres, a steel radial tire JV between China's Chaoyang Long March Tyre and Pakistan's Servis Group, is seeking to raise $28M in Pakistan's biggest IPO yet

Korean AI chip ​startup DeepX is preparing a Korea IPO

Italian luxury sneaker brand Golden Goose is marketing a $1B bond sale to fund its LBO by Chinese PE firm HSG

Auction house Sotheby's will sell an $825M junk bond in a refinancing push

MLM scheme Herbalife is reviving an $800M junk bond sale

Luxury retailer Tory Burch is planning a $700M leveraged loan sale to repurchase a stake from General Atlantic 

A Goldman Sachs private credit fund raised $750M in an investment grade bond sale 

A Blue Owl private credit fund raised $400M in a bond sale

Brazilian miner CSN Mineracao is sounding out traders for a $200M prepayment against iron ore cargos

The founder of collapsed Chinese developer giant Evergrande pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraud in China 

A private credit fund of TCW Group wrote off its entire ~$30M equity stake in seafood chain Red Lobster but marked its $56M of debt at par

Bankrupt luxury retailer Saks secured court approval to sell its corporate jet for $6M in Chapter 11 proceedings

PE firm Court Square Capital raised $3.8B for its fifth flagship fund

MM PE firm Stellex raised $2.4B for its third flagship fund

Carlyle raised $1.5B for a new ABF fund

Goldman Sachs and French PE firm Ardian acquired $1B US PE LP stakes from SWF China Investment Corp

Lockheed Martin is increasing its VC fund allocation from $400M to $1B

Lower MM PE firm Dominus Capital raised $640M for its fourth flagship PE fund

Across Ventures will partner with Japan's SBI Holdings on a $100M VC fund to connect leading-edge US innovation with Japanese enterprises

Reverence Capital-backed RIA rollup Osaic Holdings is seeking to raise money in a CV deal from Bain Capital

Goldman Sachs filed for its first Bitcoin ETF product

'Crypto Bros' appear to be dodging reporting sales to IRS

Bloomberg published a short explainer on why market making on prediction markets is more difficult than financial markets. It's an insightful read.

Joe Wiggins wrote a cool piece on ten beliefs that currently define his approach to investing.

​Round 3 on April 22 is going to be a fun mix of social clinics with a small tournament. All skill levels are invited to play.

Guests are most welcome! Whether you want to watch the games, socialize over drinks, or anything in between