Sweetgreen Stock in the Toilet

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Good Morning,

Trump will sell high-speed access to his Truth Social posts, Mamdani wants to ban landlords from requiring proof or income, bulge brackets went on a massive job cut spree in Q2, and the explosive diarrhea outbreak has caused sweetgreen stock to plunge 25% in just four days.

Transform your sleep for the better with Eight Sleep, technology trusted by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Lewis Hamilton.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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

Markets

• US stocks slipped yesterday as traders weighed AI capex woes and the Iran situation against upbeat economic data ‌and a strong start to earnings season

• Middle East-US Treasury sovereign risk premiums jumped by 20 bps to 402 bps to the widest spread in since 2022

Earnings

• TSMC blew past Q2 estimates on extremely robust AI related demand; the firm will invest another $100B in US (CNBC)

• Netflix met Q2 earnings and revenue estimates on rapidly growing live events efforts as subscribers; the firm pledged more programs to reverse slowing growth (CNBC)

• UnitedHealth issued a Q2 beat-and-raise on improved medical cost and higher government reimbursement in low-income Medicaid plans (CNBC)

• Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

• So there's apparently a third place decider and markets seem to care

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

Headline Roundup

• Explosive diarrhea outbreak causes sweetgreen stock plunge (BBG)

• Iran tells Houthis to close Red Sea gateway if US hits power network (RT)

• Trump's Truth Social will sell high-speed access to his posts (CNBC)

• Economic activity is rising as inflation eases slightly (RT)

• Market is so risk-on that path higher looks tough (BBG)

• Energy IPOs surge as investors hunt for ways to play AI boom (FT)

• Data center backlash has companies turning to green debt (BBG)

• UK leaders are calling up PE execs to ask why UK capital markets suck (FT)

• Foreign M&A by Indian companies are on track to hit a record (FT)

• Bulge brackets cut over 10k jobs in Q2 by the most since Covid (BBG)

• Goldman Sachs settles for junior roles on trio of UK deals (FT)

• JPMorgan is set to become world's first $1T bank (RT)

• SpaceX post-IPO collapse threatens IPO market's AI euphoria (BBG)

• SpaceX short sellers are sitting on $8.7B of paper profits (RT)

• SpaceX selloff an ominous sign as lockup expiry looms (RT)

• Record Korea ETF inflows fuels SK Hynix proxy play (BBG)

• Quant trader Jump Trading doubled its prediction markets team to 20 (BBG)

• Oversight Board finds AI models less likely to criticize repressive regimes (RT)

• Chinese AI start-up Moonshot to launch model challenging Anthropic (FT)

• US lawmakers urge Trump administration to ban Chinese memory chips (FT)

• Mamdani proposed banning landlords from requiring income proof or credit checks (BBG)

• Exec Sum home beehiiv announced it's biggest expansion yet (TC)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Strategic

• CEO Ryan Cohen said GameStop is 'coming for eBay one way or another' as he seeks a $55B takeover

• Uber agreed to acquire German peer Delivery Hero for $14.8B cash

• KKR and Energy Capital Partners sweetened their bid for European energy distribution firm DCC to over $7.7B and bought extra time to complete a drawn-out takeover process

• Swiss industrial company ABB agreed to buy UK industrial components company Rotork at a $5.5B valuation, including debt, at a 60% premium

• EQT raised its tender offer price for $4.3B-listed Japanese price comparison website Kakaku.com, escalating a bidding war with LY Corp. and Bain Capital

• Eli Lilly agreed to acquire $2B-listed psychedelics biotech AtaiBeckley for $3.8B cash at a 25% premium

• Carnelian Energy Capital and EnCap Investments are in late stage talks to acquire shale oil venture VTX Energy Partners from commodities giant Vitol Group at a $2.3B valuation

• French software maker Dassault Systemes is in talks to buy drug-trial ​software maker ArisGlobal from Nordic Capital ‌for $2B

• Elon Musk acquired Florida-based gas turbine company APR Energy for $1B

• Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International secured 55% of shares in its $600M bid to acquire regional peer Addiko Bank

• Japan's Seven & i Holdings is in talks to invest over $1B for a stake in Poland's No. 1 convenience-store operator Zabka Group

• Japan's state energy firm JOGMEC is exploring a stake sale of its APAC LNG projects

VC

• Crypto.com raised $400M at a $20B valuation in its first institutional fundraising round from Citadel Securities

• Brokerage and financial infrastructure startup Alpaca raised a $135M Series D follow on round at $1.15B valuation led by Peak XV Partners

• SWISSto12, a Swiss satellite and payload manufacturer, raised a $70M Series C.

• Applied Computing, a UK startup developing physics-based AI for energy operators, raised a $20M Series A led by KBR

• Kind Designs, a climate-resilience 3D-printed living seawalls company, raised a $10M pre-Series A at a $70M valuation from Mark Cuban, Kyle Kuzma, and others

• Aina, an Indian AI interface hardware startup, raised a $5.5M funding round led by Redstart Labs and 360 ONE

• Horizon Trade, an AI platform that turn ideas into tested strategies and automated trades without need for quant or coding skills. raised a $2M pre-seed round from Entrée Capital

Access the complete VC deal flow and data on Fundable

IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Brookfield-backed data center company Csquare raised $1.05B for a $3.25B market cap in an IPO priced below a marketed range

• The $1B IPO of India's SBI Funds Management is 42x oversubscribed

• Digi Spain Telecom, the Spain unit of Romania's Digi Communications, raised $170M for a $1.7B market cap in a Spain IPO

• Nuclear fuel firm Standard Nuclear fell 10% in its trading debut after raising $150M for a $2.15B valuation in a downsized IPO priced below a marketed range

• $40B-listed Chinese tech giant Baidu plans to pursue a dual primary listing in US and Hong Kong

Debt

• Bank of America pulled out Chicago's $1B debt sale backed by tickets, fines, and other overdue fees

• Indian conglomerate Shapoorji Pallonji Group raised $650M in a debut dollar bond sale

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• Senegal tapped Lazard as financial advisor ahead of a potential restructuring

• Aston Martin creditors led by Arini, BlackRock, and Sculptor Capital tapped Jefferies as financial advisor ahead of potential debt talks

Funds / Secondaries

• Apollo is seeking to deploy $20B in private credit in Mexico

• King Street significantly restricted withdrawals from its main hedge fund

• Hedge fund Carronade Capital will close to new investors after AUM hit $3.7B

• Investment firm Balbec Capital raised $930M for its latest flagship fund to invest in asset-backed deals including mortgages

• Multi-strat hedge fund Paloma will cut the number of PM teams by 50% to 10

• Aethon Fund, a new hedge fund that pairs proprietary market signal research with AI-powered trading discipline, launched with $50M in capital

Crypto Sum Snapshot

• Japan passed a law recognizing crypto as "financial assets"

• Morgan Stanley rolled out Bitcoin spot trading on E*Trade

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

Exec's Picks

• WSJ highlighted a growing but somewhat hidden concern amid the AI boom: violence against tech executives.

• Also, if you think movies don't look as good as they used to, you're not alone. Check out Olga Yakimenko incredible insights into the evolution of filmmaking.

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.