US stocks closed mostly flat on Friday as traders digested a hot inflation reading and braced for US-Iran talks

EM stocks rose 7.4% in their best week since Covid

Oil posted its biggest weekly drop since Covid

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

US and Iran failed to reach an agreement following weekend peace talks

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

US CPI spiked 3.3% YoY in March (CNBC) 

US will blockade Strait of Hormuz after peace talks failed (CNBC)

Commodity traders lost 'billions' in early days of Iran war (FT)

Europe energy traders brace for 21-hour day as volatility surges (BBG)

Goldman's 'unwavering' support shows Gulf's lure for Wall Street (BBG)

Market's next test arrives with Q1 earnings on deck (WSJ)

Wall Street banks are set for a $40B trading haul on Iran volatility (FT)

Wall Street has a new CDS index to short private credit (RT)

Insurers are taking bigger risks than pre-2008 (WSJ)

Jamie Dimon called out PE for missing the IPO window (BBG)

Leveraged loan fund outflows jump as investors shun credit risk (RT)

SpaceX posted a $5B loss last year on xAI capex (TI)

US met with Wall Street execs to discuss Anthropic Mythos risks (CNBC)

Anthropic is weighing building its own AI chips (RT)

White House warned staff against market bets amid Iran war (RT)

Billionaires rally behind Bill Ackman over $2M 'shakedown' by ex-staffer (NYP)

Rory McIlroy won the Masters in first repeat since Tiger Woods (ESPN)

BlackRock's GIP, Brookfield, EIG Partners, KKR, Stonepeak, and Australia's Macquarie are considering offers for a stake in Kuwait Petroleum Corp.'s pipeline network as part of a $7B lease deal

GFL Environmental is close to acquiring Canada's Secure Waste Infrastructure Corp. in a $4.3B mostly stock deal, including debt

Japan approved $4B in additional subsidies to quicken Rapidus Corp.'s entry into the AI chipmaking space

Chinese conglomerate Fosun International is weighing a potential $3.2B sale of its 20.45% stake in Portugal's largest listed bank BCP 

PE firm Leonard Green & Partners is close to acquiring construction consultancy Cumming Group from New Mountain Capital at a $3B valuation, including debt

Over a dozen suitors including WE ​Soda, Magris Resources, and U.S. Silica Holdings are interested in mining giant Rio Tinto's US boron assets, which could fetch $2B 

An unit of Abu Dhabi's International Holding Co. will acquire a majority stake in UK hospitality empire Caprice Holdings, which includes iconic restaurants and private members' clubs, for over $1.3B

$1.2B-listed Swiss contract drugmaker PolyPeptide is attracting takeover interest from EQT, KKR, and Advent 

Spanish renewables giant Iberdrola paused a $1B minority stake sale in a solar energy portfolio on valuation concerns 

UK student housing landlord Unite Group hired Goldman Sachs to accelerate asset sales to $540M this year

Brazilian healthcare firm Hapvida Participacoes e Investimentos is seeking to raise $400M from a sale of its southern Brazil operations

Stripes-owned bagel chain PopUp Bagels raised funds from Tiger Global at a $300M valuation

Canadian AI startup Cohere and German AI startup Aleph Alpha are in talks to merge 

Botswana is still keen on buying a controlling stake in diamond giant De Beers from miner Anglo American potentially dampening interest from some private investors looking to acquire De Beers

State-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company will acquire the entire output of the Aphrodite gas deposit in Cyprus from Cyprus' state-owned Newmed Energy 

Glencore acquired a 45% stake in ‌an aluminum plant in South Carolina

MillTech, a next-gen FX hedging and cash investment solutions provider, raise a $60M minority investment at a $325M valuation from Apax Digital Funds

Elorian, an AI research and product lab focused on visual reasoning, raised a $55M seed round at a $300M valuation co-led by Striker Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Altimeter

True Footage, a residential appraisal and appraiser services company, raised a $40M Series C led by Cox Enterprises

Mastra, a TypeScript agent framework startup, raised a $22M Series A led by Spark Capital

SimpleChain, a purpose-built Layer 1 network for real-world assets, raised a $15M seed round from family offices and institutional investors 

Space surveillance startup HawkEye 360 filed for an IPO; the startup was valued at $2B in a recent $173M Series E round

Malaysia's IOI Properties Group plans to establish a REIT holding its retail, hotel, and office assets, followed by a $500M Malaysia IPO 

Organic juice maker Suja Life filed for an IPO

Quadria Capital-backed Indian eye care chain Maxivision Eye Hospitals is preparing for an India IPO

Indonesia's richest man Prajogo Pangestu began selling small stakes in his listed companies including Petrindo Jaya Kreasi, Green Era Energy, and Barito Renewables Energy due to tighter ownership rules

Activist hedge fund Third Point sold its entire stake in CRE data firm CoStar and will not pursue ​a proxy fight

Blackstone plans to raise $2B in an IPO of SPAC Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust to acquire data centers

Crypto treasury firm The Ether Machine terminated its $1.6B merger with Dynamix Corporation due to unfavorable market conditions

Barclays is sounding out investors for a refinancing of Apollo-backed photo-sharing platform Shutterfly after talks with private credit lenders lost momentum

Ares plans to raise $20B for its fourth flagship US direct lending fund, significantly smaller than its $34B previous vintage

PE firm Warburg Pincus launched a reported $1.8B fund to invest in European defense assets with early backing from insurer Munich Re

Tech PE firm Vista Equity Partners is raising $250M for a software distressed debt fund

Bhutan sold 70% of its Bitcoin in the past 18 months and stopped Bitcoin mining 

SpaceX holds $600M in Bitcoin

VC firm NEO is up 7.5x on its first vintage from 2018 and up 6.5x on its second vintage from 2021. A rare performance from any VC fund during the ZIRP era, and especially rare considering the 650% gain…Check out WSJ's profile on Neo.

a16z published some interesting insights on the state of VC in Q1. Check it out here.