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Good Morning,

Market volatility picked up ahead of today's elections, on a day where banks are granting PTO for employees to vote.

Speaking of voting, GET OUT AND VOTE! 🇺🇸🇺🇸 

Automate your complicated business spend and expense allocation process with the leading fintech software in the alternative asset management space, StavPay.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks slipped yesterday as traders brace for volatility and volume on today's elections 

  • Rates volatility hit its highest level in over a year 

Earnings

• Palantir jumped 14% after beating Q3 earnings and revenue estimates and forecasting a strong Q4 thanks to unrelenting AI demand (CNBC) 

• Marriott missed Q3 estimates and cut its FY profit forecast as weak travel in China offset strong group and international demand (RT) 

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Supermicro, Apollo  

  • Wednesday: Qualcomm, Arm, Novo Nordisk, CVS

  • Thursday: DraftKings, Airbnb, Rivian

• Full calendar here

🇺🇸 Election Forecast

• Election markets priced in a final ~56% chance of a Trump victory today.

• Put your money where your mouth is! Get out and vote and bet the election while you're at it too.

Headline Roundup

• Banks are granting PTO to employees to vote (RT)

• CEOs are being sacked more quickly over poor stock performance (RT)

• Wall Street frets as Big Tech AI CapEx tops $200B annually (FT)

• Europe-focused hedge funds posted their largest monthly loss in one year (RT)

• Equity funds saw their biggest weekly outflow in five weeks (RT)

• Eurozone manufacturing contracted for a 28th-straight month (RT

• German firms' hiring plans dropped to a post-Covid low (RT)

• Blackstone targets new European markets in global wealth push (RT)

• BlackRock becomes latest to file for Vanguard's ETF-mutual fund structure (FT)

• Australian police raided PwC's Sydney office (RT)

• Boeing workers voted to end a seven-week strike (CNBC)

• Banco Sabadell sued PE firm Cerberus for ~$400M over soured RE deal (FT)

• Franklin Templeton hit by further outflows amid Western probe (FT) 

• OpenAI is in talks with California to become for-profit (BBG)

• Dollar Tree CEO Rick Dreiling stepped down amid struggles (RT)

• BNPL group Affirm launched in UK (FT)

• Homebuyers are older than ever (CNBC)

A Message From StavPay

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Silver Lake and Bain Capital are among suitors for a minority stake in Intel's programmable chips business Altera, which Intel acquired for ~$17B in 2015

• Canadian telecoms giant BCE agreed to acquire US-based Ziply Fiber for $3.6B

• Stonepeak will take airfreight carrier ATSG private at a $3.1B EV

• Blackstone is in advanced talks to acquire $2.2B-listed shopping center REIT Retail Opportunity Investments 

• Australian power generation operator Zashvin will acquire an additional 33% stake in Australian coal mining JV Jellinbah from miner Anglo American for $1.1B

• German construction firm GP Günter Papenburg plans to pursue a takeover of $1.2B-listed European steel producer Salzgitter 

• UK insurer and asset manager M&G bought a 65% stake in European real estate investor BauMont

VC

• Robotics AI startup Physical Intelligence raised a $400M round at a $2B valuation from Jeff Bezos, OpenAI, Thrive Capital and Lux Capital

• DeepRoute.ai, a Chinese autonomous driving tech startup, raised $100M from an unidentified Chinese automaker

• Cintoo, a cloud-based reality data management and collaboration solutions provider, raised a $42M Series B led by Partech

• Andium, a remote-field monitoring and communications startup, raised a $21.7M Series B led by Aramco Ventures

• Yazen Health, a Swedish obesity-focused healthcare platform, raised a $19.5M Series A led by Evli Growth Partners and Helsana HealthInvest

• Conflux Technology, a heat transfer and additive manufacturing startup, raised a $11M Series B led by Breakthrough Victoria

• Dutch PropTech startup iDWELL raised $10.6M in funding from Knight Capital

• IOTA Software, an industrial and business data visualization software, raised a $10.4M Series A-2 led by Altira Group

• Digital fund operation platform Fundcraft raised a $6.6M Series A extension led by 3VC and MiddleGame Ventures

• Plato, a German AI-powered ERP platform for wholesalers, raised a $6.5M pre-seed round led by Cherry Ventures

• Algebrik AI, a digital loan origination platform, raised a $4M Series A

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• India's Reliance Industries is planning a 2025 IPO its Reliance Jio telecom unit at a potential $100B+ valuation in what could be India's largest-ever listing

• Middle Eastern grocer Lulu Retail upsized its Abu Dhabi IPO to $1.7B, UAE's largest IPO this year

• Oman's state energy firm OQ plans to sell up to 49% of its methanol and LPG unit OQ Base Industries in a local IPO at a $1B to $1.5B valuation

• Canadian women's clothing retailer Groupe Dynamite is preparing a local IPO

Debt

• Credit investor GoldenTree agreed to buy an $872M portfolio of UK consumer loans

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• Franchise Group, the owner of brands including The Vitamin Shoppe and Pet Supplies Plus, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

• TGI Fridays is in talks with potential buyers after filing for Chapter 11

Fundraising

• Shamrock Capital raised $1.6B across two new PE funds

• Capital Dynamics closed its sixth flagship secondaries PE fund at $1.1B

• Coatue is seeking to raise $1B for its flagship fund to invest in AI

• BlueFive Capital is seeking to raise $1B for a permanent capital fund focused on EM financial services firms

Crypto Corner

• Robinhood, Kraken, and Galaxy launched a global stablecoin pegged to dollar (RT)

• a16z and Coinbase pledged ~$25M each to crypto super PAC Fairshake (BBG)

Exec’s Picks

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• Ben Carlson shared some great examples on why it's probably best to ignore financial advice from hedge fund managers, even if they put their money where their mouth is.

• Reddit has been crushing it for perhaps every reason that's NOT AI. Check out what Jack Raines has to say about this ironic internet twist.

• Bloomberg Odd Lots sat down with Bernstein's Bob Brackett to discuss what the nuclear power revival means for the price of uranium.

Financial Services Recruiting 💼

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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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