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US will control Venezuela's oil indefinitely, US will meet with Denmark officials to discuss Greenland, capital markets activity is having a record-breaking start to the year, JPMorgan cut all ties with proxy advisers, and Trump caught stock traders by surprise with orders to ban institutional investors from buying homes and pause dividends and buybacks for defense stocks.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 1/7/2026 market close.

Learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*

Markets

  • US stocks' record run hit a pause as traders digested mixed economic data and shifting geopolitical risks

    • Blackstone, homebuilder stocks, and defense stocks plunged after a series of regulatory orders from Trump 

  • Venezuela stocks are up over 100% YTD

  • China stock trading volume jumped to a four-month high

  • US Treasury yields fell to a one-week low

  • Iron ore hit a one-year high

Earnings

  • Constellation Brands beat Q3 earnings and revenue estimates despite a YoY sales decline driven by wine and spirits divestitures (YH)

  • Jefferies missed on Q4 earnings but beat revenue estimates as a 20% YoY surge in IB fees and strong underwriting partly offset a $30M pre-tax loss tied to First Brands (BBG)

  • Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

  • A friendly reminder that Trump is yet to make one of his most important policy decisions

  • Trade your prediction on the next Fed chair on Polymarket

Headline Roundup

  • US is looking to ban institutional investors from buying homes (CNBC)

  • US is looking to pause dividends and buybacks for defense stocks (CNBC)

  • US will control Venezuela's oil indefinitely (BBG)

  • Commodities giants will meet with US over Venezuela oil (BBG)

  • Hedge funds are racing to invest in obscure unpaid Venezuelan debt (FT)

  • US will discuss Greenland with Denmark officials next week (FT)

  • Global IB revenue exceeded $100B in second-best year ever (RT)

  • US VC fundraising fell 35% last year as firms stay private longer (WSJ)

  • Global bond sales hit a record $230B to kick off 2026 (BBG)

  • US blue-chip bond sales hit $88B in busiest week since 2020 (BBG)

  • Europe bond sales topped $71.3B in record-breaking day (BBG)

  • Strained US public schools sold the most munis since 2013 last year (BBG)

  • Japan's struggling bond market faces another big supply shock (BBG)

  • Buyout wave seen in Japan pharma after Hisamitsu deal (BBG)

  • Carlyle sees good year for PE deals after 'tricky' 2025 (BBG)

  • Bridgewater named co-CIO Bob Prince as board chair (RT)

  • JPMorgan cut all ties with proxy advisers in favor of AI (WSJ)

  • JPMorgan will take over Apple credit card from Goldman Sachs (WSJ) 

  • Alphabet's market cap surpassed Apple's for first time since 2019 (CNBC)

  • Condo prices are widely underperforming single-family homes (WSJ)

  • US job openings fell to a one-year low (BBG)

  • US services activity expanded at fastest pace in over a year (BBG)

  • US seized two more sanctioned oil tankers (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Warner Bros. Discovery rejected an amended $108B takeover offer from Paramount Skydance on financing concerns and encouraged shareholders to stick with Netflix's $82.7B deal

  • Chevron and PE firm Quantum Energy Partners are seeking to jointly buy $22B of international assets from sanctioned Russian oil giant Lukoil

  • Pharma giant AbbVie denied reports of advanced talks to acquire cancer focused biotech Revolution Medicines in a $20B deal

  • Australia's BlueScope Steel rejected an $8.8B takeover bid from US steelmaker Steel Dynamics and Australian conglomerate SGH citing valuation concerns

  • Infrastructure investor I Squared agreed to acquire infrastructure safety company Ramudden Global from European PE firm Triton for $2.9B

  • Kenyan distributor Bia Tosha is seeking to suspend UK brewer Diageo's $2.3B stake sale to Japanese rival Asahi until a prior legal dispute is resolved

  • PE firm TPG is close to acquiring UnitedHealth's Optum UK healthcare software business in a $1.6B deal

  • KKR and Oak Hill Capital will invest a combined $1.9B in UK-based European built-to-suit data center platform GTR

  • German chemical conglomerate Henkel offered to acquire $915M-listed shampoo and hair products maker Olaplex

  • UK electronics manufacturer TT Electronics' shareholders narrowly rejected rival CICOR's $385M take-private bid

  • UK fintech Zilch will acquire Lithuanian lender Fjord Bank for $38M

  • Berkshire-backed Japanese conglomerate Marubeni acquired UK-based footwear portfolio owner Jacobson

  • UK fintech giant Revolut is in talks to acquire Turkish digital bank FUPS

  • Italian tire maker Pirelli is in talks with Chinese conglomerate and largest shareholder Sinochem to reduce its stake to 10%

  • Luxembourg-based LatAm telecom giant Millicom signaled interest in bidding for Spanish telecom Telefonica's Chilean unit

  • Nike sold its NFT subsidiary RTFKT

  • Barclays bought a stake in stablecoin-settlement company Ubyx

  • AI startup Anthropic is in talks to raise a $10B ro

VC

  • TikTok-owner ByteDance is set to be valued at $350B-$370B in a CV transaction led by  VC HSG; the firm was valued at $480B in a secondary share sale in November

  • AI startup Anthropic is in talks to raise a $10B round at a $350B valuation led by SWF GIC and Coatue

  • Media startup Semafor raised a $30M round at a $330M valuation

  • Rakuten Medical, a photo-immunotherapy biotech, raised a $100M Series F led by TaiAx Life Science Fund

  • Enterprise AI startup and Intel spinout Articul8 is raising a $70M Series B round led by Adara Ventures

  • AI-native healthcare dead due diligence startup Prudentia Sciences raised a $20M Series A led by McKesson Ventures 

  • Interos.ai, an AI-driven supply-chain risk platform, raised a $20M growth round led by Blue Owl Capital and Structural Capital

  • Autonomous Technologies Group, an AI financial advisor platform, raised a $15M pre-seed round from Y Combinator, Collaborative Group, Fusion Fund, and others

  • Babylon, a startup enabling native Bitcoin collateral through trustless BTCVaults, raised a $15M round led by a16z crypto

  • Laser-AR photonics startup Vitrealab raised an $11M Series A led by LIFTT Italian Venture Capital and LIFTT EuroInvest

  • European AI crop-design startup Biographica raised a $9.4M round led by Faber VC

  • AgileRL, a reinforcement-learning software startup, raised a $7.5M seed round led by Fusion Fund

Get real-time updates on any startup, VC, or sector. Try Fundable.

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Czech defense firm CSG is weighing a Dutch IPO that could raise over $3.5B

  • Chinese tech giant Baidu's AI chip unit Kunlunxin hired banks for a Hong Kong IPO that may raise $2B

  • Citigroup and JPMorgan opted out of Indian asset manager SBI Funds' $1.4B IPO over fee disputes

  • Chinese AI startup Knowledge Atlas Technology raised $560M in its Hong Kong IPO

  • xFusion, the AI server firm that spun off from Chinese tech giant Huawei, hired Citic Securities to prepare for a China IPO

Debt

  • Barclays, Bank of America, and Citigroup are selling $7B of debt backing Blackstone and TPG's $18.3B LBO of medical device maker Hologic, part of a bigger $12.25B debt package

  • Argentina secured a $3B loan from a group of international banks to help cover a foreign debt payment

  • Cable giant Charter sold $3B of junk bonds ahead of its planned merger with peer Cox Communications

  • Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are in talks to convert $2B of Saudi loans into a JF-17 fighter jet deal

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

  • Burned bondholders on luxury retailer Saks are split on financing the firm's bankruptcy, with some supporting a $1B+ DIP loan to keep stores open and others looking to exit

  • Collapsed auto parts supplier First Brands' founder Patrick James accused Jefferies of withholding documents that would disprove fraud claims, while launching a liquidation sale process as it expects to run out of cash by January-end without an emergency financing

  • Brazil's audit chief backed off threats to overturn failed lender Banco Master's central bank-ordered liquidation, saying only the supreme court has that authority

  • Citgo Petroleum, the US refiner indirectly owned by Venezuela, is weighing resuming Venezuelan oil buying amid a pending takeover by hedge fund Elliott in a court-ordered auction

Fundraising / Secondaries

  • Tech-sector focused PE firm BV Investment Partners raised $2.4B for its eleventh fund

  • Harvey Capital, the L/S credit hedge fund of ex-King Street partner Paul Goldschmid, raised over $1.8B for its debut

  • VC Lux Capital raised $1.5B for its ninth and largest fund to date to focus on science and national security

  • Chinese SWF CIC sold $1B worth of PE LP stakes to French PE firm Ardian after delays to the deal 

  • KKR-backed biotech investor Catalio Capital raised over $325M for its third life sciences-focused private credit fund

  • Israeli VC IL Ventures is seeking to raise over a $100M for a second fund to continue to focus on deep tech

  • OCIO Partners Capital filed for a debut secondaries fund

Crypto Sum Snapshot

  • Trump family's World Liberty Financial applied for a national banking license 

  • Some crypto treasury firms are being forced to sell their crypto holdings 

  • MSCI shelved crypto exclusion plan but signaled wider review

  • First US criminal crypto tax evader was sentenced to two years 

  • Lloyds leads charge in using blockchain to disrupt UK banking

Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.

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