US stocks closed mixed yesterday as traders weighed the Iran/Middle East situation 

Europe's Stoxx 600 slid 1.7% to a two-week low in its worst day in three months

UK's FTSE 100 had its worst day since November

Canada's TSX index hit an ATH

Pakistan's KSE-30 index crashed 10% in its worst day ever to enter a bear market following a historic rally

Munis were the best performing fixed income asset class in February

Oil surged

EM FX fell 0.5% in its worst day since November 2024

What we're watching this week:  

Full calendar here

Geopolitics bets on Polymarket hit a record amid the Iran conflict

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

Trump vows 'whatever it takes' on Iran as conflict widens (CNBC)

Global bond binge gets disrupted after war raises credit risk (BBG)

Hedge funds rethink EM bets after US strikes on Iran (FT)

Hedge funds and banks forced into contingency mode in UAE (BBG)

Investors turn to gold, not bonds, as haven from Iran war (FT)

Geopolitics bets hit a record on Polymarket (BBG)

Retail investors shun private credit amid Blue Owl troubles (FT)

Citadel's flagship fund rose 1.9% in February (CNBC)

Oil producers pounce on price surge to lock in future revenue (BBG)

Iran struck an Amazon data center in Dubai (RT)

SCOTUS declined to hear copyrights lawsuit over AI-generated material (RT)

Paramount Skydance will combine Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services into a single platform following its $110B acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery

Activist Elliott agreed to a sweetened bid from Toyota Group for Toyota Industries that values the firm at $40B

BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners and European PE firm EQT agreed to acquire power producer AES for $33.4B, including ~$23B debt, at a 40% premium

Nvidia will invest $2B in $56B-listed photonics firm Lumentum

Nvidia will invest $2B in $56B-listed photonics firm Coherent

Warburg Pincus will invest $1B at an $8B valuation in Global Eggs

Pacific Avenue Capital Partners is nearing a $320M deal to acquire babysitting platform Care.com from media conglomerate IAC

Nvidia-backed Reflection AI is in talks to raise new funding at a $20B valuation

European industrialized-housing startup Gropyus raised a $117M growth round

Ease Health, an AI-native behavioral health OS startup, raised a $41M Series A led by a16z

Defense-focused AI startup Smack Technologies raised a $32M Series A round led by Geodesic Capital and Costanoa Ventures

cargo.one, a European AI-driven multimodal freight platform, raised a $20M round from Bessemer Venture Partners alongside its acquisition of ocean rate platform Cargofive

Construction-tech startup MeltPlan raised a $10M seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners

Decentralized cloud-storage startup Akave raised a $6.6M round from Protocol Labs, Blockchain Builders Fund, and others 

Oaktree picked banks for an IPO of UK annuities provider Utmost Group, which could fetch a $3.3B valuation

SoftBank-owned Japanese fintech PayPay is delaying formal marketing for a $1.1B US IPO

German defense tech firm Vincorion will begin marketing a $350M German IPO at an over $1.2B valuation

Canadian real estate firm Avenue Living suspended redemptions at two REITs as management considers taking them public

JPMorgan is set to start a sales process of $20B of syndicated debt for Silver Lake, PIF, and Affinity Partner's record $55B LBO of Electronic Arts

Abu Dhabi state-owned oil giant ADNOC paused a debut dim sum bond sale

Elliott has $270M exposure to collapsed UK lender MFS' mortgage-backed facilities

Barclays blocked transactions linked to MFS months before collapse

Growth investor Bregal Sagemount raised $3.5B for its fifth fund

European private credit firm Arcmont is in talks to raise a $2.2B CV for a 2019 private credit vintage led by Ares and FOF Pantheon

Ares raised an $850M CV for systems integrator Convergint Technologies led by Leonard Green & Partners 

UK's oldest PE firm Charterhouse raised $1.2B for a targeted $1.7B twelfth flagship fund

Lower MM healthcare services-focused PE firm Seven Hills Capital raised $235M for its sophomore fund

Crypto loses grip on retail crowd defecting to equities

Crypto's 24-hour promise gets a geopolitical reality check

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