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Good Morning,
US intends to acquire Greenland, US struck an oil deal with Venezuela, PE management fees hit a record low, Saudi Arabia will open its stock market to all foreign investors, a bond trader placed the biggest fed funds futures bet ever, and wealth managers are seeing a ridiculous rush to invest in Venezuela.
Upgrade your dealmaking and investment workflows this year with Blueflame's specialized AI platform for finance. See how Blueflame can serve your firm's specific needs.
Let's dive in.
Before The Bell
As of 1/6/2026 market close.
Learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*
Markets
US stocks continued to rally on broad tech and geo-political optimism
Small-caps Russell 2000 is leading the rally YTD
Data center-cooling stocks dropped over 5% and memory stocks soared ~10% after Jensen Huang's CES speech
Sandisk is up 855% since spinning off last year to become S&P 500's best-performing stock for 2025 and 2026
EM stocks hit a fresh ATH despite global political uncertainty while Asia stocks notched their best-ever start to a year
Venezuela stocks are up ~70% YTD
Korea's KOSPI index is up 8% YTD
Traders boosted Taiwan stock leverage to the highest since 2008
EM dollar bond risk premiums sunk to 250 bps to a thirteen-year low
Gold rose closer to its ATH
Silver surged closer to its ATH for a 170% YoY gain
Copper surged to a fresh ATH
Cotton surged to a two-month high
Earnings
What we're watching this week:
Today: Jefferies, Constellation Brands
Full calendar here
Prediction Markets
Re-inventing the hostile takeover from first principles
Trade your prediction on US foreign policy this year on Polymarket
Headline Roundup
Marco Rubio told Congress US plans to buy Greenland (NYT)
Venezuela will give 50M bbl to US (CNBC)
Rush to invest in Venezuela is 'nuts' (BBG)
Venezuela bond rally belies complex $150B creditor and political web (RT)
Two-thirds of regional Fed banks voted against a December rate cut (RT)
Korean stocks' world-beating rally is just a start (BBG)
A trader placed the biggest-ever fed funds futures bet (BBG)
PE firms launch delayed recruiting drive after summer outcry (FT)
PE firms are expected to unleash middle-market M&A deals (RT)
PE management fees hit record low 1.6% last year (CNBC)
Private markets fundraising hit a record $1.4T last year on credit rush (AW)
Regulators globally are softening capital rules for banks (RT)
Goldman Sachs topped global M&A rankings with $1.5T in deals (RT)
Teucrium filed for a 'Venezuela Exposure' ETF (BBG)
Saudi Arabia will open financial market to all foreign investors (BBG)
Hong Kong developers sold $750M of luxury homes in two weeks (BBG)
A Message from Blueflame
Investment decisions hinge on having the full picture, but critical details often hide in plain sight.
That's why we built Global Search: to help investment firms not only find information faster but also uncover insights they didn’t even know they had.
Global Search is already helping Blueflame users reduce research time and surface insights they’d otherwise miss. A few real-world examples:
Build company summaries using deal notes, CRM records, emails, and public data
Reference historical deals to inform comps, memos, or diligence workflows
Search firm-wide knowledge for everything related to a sector or theme
Prepare for LP meetings with relationship-specific insights and internal context
With one interface for firm knowledge, connected apps, LLMs, and the web, Blueflame helps dealmakers and investment firms go deeper—and move faster—without sacrificing accuracy.
Deal Flow
M&A / Investments
Regional lender Comerica's shareholders approved a $10.9B sale to rival Fifth Third Bank
European PE firm Hg agreed to take-private financial software maker OneStream at a $6.4B equity value, representing a 30% premium
Beverage giant AB InBev agreed to re-acquire a 49.9% stake in its US metal container plants from a consortium of investors led by Apollo in a $3B deal
Japanese pharma firm Hisamitsu agreed to go private in a $2.9B MBO, representing a 35% premium
KKR, Warburg Pincus, and EQT are among bidders vying to acquire Southeast Asian school operator XCL Education from TPG at a potential $2B valuation
Eyewear firm STAAR Surgical plans to reject Swiss rival Alcon's $1.6B take-private offer
Eli Lilly is in advanced talks to acquire inflammation-focused biotech Ventyx Biosciences for over $1B, representing an 82% premium
KKR will acquire sports-focused PE firm Arctos Partners for $1B
TPG acquired a majority stake in homebuilder Lennar's multifamily development and investment management platform, committing an additional $1B in the business
Self-driving tech company Mobileye agreed to acquire Israeli startup Mentee Robotics in a $900M cash-and-stock deal
Pharma giant Amgen acquired cancer drug developer Dark Blue Therapeutics in an $840M deal
AI chipmaker Marvell agreed to buy networking equipment provider XConn Technologies in a $540M deal
TPG will acquire a 6.5% stake in retirement annuity provider Jackson Financial for $500M as part of a deal to manage $20B in assets
Consulting firm Accenture agreed to buy UK AI data crunching startup Faculty
Singapore delivery platform Grab acquired Chinese AI robotics firm Intermove
Europe's KBC Securities and Van Lanschot Kempen IB agreed to combine their equities businesses into a 50-50 JV
VC
Musk's xAI raised a $20B Series E at a reported $230B valuation from Valor Equity Partners, StepStone Group, Fidelity, and SWF QIA
Crowdsourced AI benchmarking startup LMArena raised a $150M Series A at a $1.7B valuation led by Felicis and UC Investments
Distributed quantum computing startup Photonic raised a $130M round led by Planet First Partners
Semiconductor services startup GS Microelectronics raised a $35 million Series B led by Maverick Silicon
Qualinx, a European developer of ultra-low-power GNSS chips, raised a $23M led by Invest-NL
HabitTrade, an Aussie trading-infrastructure and tokenized-equity brokerage, raised a $10M Series A led by Newborn Town
AI-powered private-markets lender Pluto raised an $8.6M seed round from Motive Ventures, Portage, Apollo, Hamilton Lane, and others
European Industrial data platform United Manufacturing Hub raised a $5.8M round led by KOMPAS VC
Get real-time updates on any startup, VC, or sector. Try Fundable.
IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades
Social media and chat platform Discord filed confidentially for an IPO; the firm was last valued at $15B in 2021
Freenet-backed German streaming platform Waipu.TV selected Citigroup and Berenberg for a Germany IPO that could fetch a $1.8B valuation
SPAC / SPV
Israeli EV battery company StoreDot will merge with Andretti Acquisition Corp. II in an $880M deal
Debt
Israel raised $6B in a eurobond sale
Cable telecom company Charter is selling $1.75B of bonds
Six Flags Entertainment is seeking to raise $1B in a junk bond sale
Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed
NYC asked a bankruptcy judge to delay a Chapter 11 auction of Pinnacle Group's rent-stabilized apartments, citing need for more time to evaluate a proposed $451M deal to Summit Properties USA and explore alternatives
Fundraising / Secondaries
Credit investor Monroe Capital raised $6.1B for for its fifth lower MM private credit fund
MM PE firm Lindsay Goldberg raised $4.9B for its sixth flagship fund
PE FOF Banner Ridge Partners raised $4.2B for its sixth PE secondaries fund
Goldman Sachs's European private credit strategy raised a $350M commitment from Danish pension Industriens
VC Morpheus raised $100M for a targeted $150M third fund (ALT)
Crypto Sum Snapshot
Morgan Stanley filed for Bitcoin and Solana ETFs
Bitcoin faithful still missing despite recovery to $90k
Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.
Exec’s Picks
Watch Jensen Huang's keynote address at CES 2026, including all the comments that sent certain sectors on a wild ride.
Amy Arnott shared eight important market lessons from 2025.
Financial Services Recruiting 💼
If you're a junior banker looking for your next career move, check out Litney Partners, a recruiting firm established by Litquidity and Whitney Partners (the oldest purely financial services executive search and consulting firm).
We aim to place strong candidates across private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, growth equity, credit, and investment banking.
We're currently seeking talent for some incredible roles. Head over to Litney Partners to drop your resume / create your profile and we'd love to get in touch!
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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.