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Good Morning,

Berkshire Hathaway is sitting on 5% of all US T-bills, AQR is increasingly employing AI/ML in investing, Bridgewater's CIOs warned of massive risks to US assets, and Jane Street overtook BofA and Citigroup in trading revenue.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 4/23/2025 market close.

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Markets

  • US stocks continued to rally on trade deal optimism and Trump's comments signaling no intent to sack J Pow

    • All three major indexes rose for a second-straight day

  • UK's FTSE 100 rose an eight day for its best winning streak in two years

  • UK 30Y gilt yield fell 12 bps to 5.25% after UK slashed long-dated bond sales to a record low

    • UK 30Y-5Y yield spread hit 50 bps this month when the 30Y was at 5.66%

  • US credit risk fell the most in two weeks as trade tensions ease

  • Gold had its worst day YTD

  • Cotton futures hit a YTD high on US-India trade talks

  • Buyer hedging on cocoa fell to a 20-year low in bet that bull market is over

Earnings

  • Boeing beat Q1 revenue estimates and narrowed losses on a 60% YoY rise in airplane deliveries as the firm prepares to seek FAA approval to ramp up production (CNBC)

  • IBM beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates and maintained its FY forecast amid  continued success in their focused strategy around hybrid cloud and AI despite economic uncertainty (CNBC)

  • AT&T met Q1 earnings estimates and narrowly beat on revenue, adding more wireless subscribers than expected as bundled plans and tariffs spurred an acceleration in mobile phone upgrades (WSJ)

  • Chipotle beat Q1 earnings estimates but missed revenue and lowered its FY forecast on its first same-store sales decline since Covid amid a slowdown in consumer spending and adverse weather (CNBC)

  • Newmont beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates as surging gold prices drove record cash flows and a sharp rise in YoY profit (WSJ)

  • What we're watching this week:

    • Today: Alphabet, Intel, Southwest, T-Mobile, PepsiCo, Vale

    • Friday: AbbVie

  • Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

  • Markets are pricing in a 50% chance of Bitcoin hitting $125k and a 25% of Bitcoin topping $150k.

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Headline Roundup

  • Bessent calls China tariffs unsustainable as US signals willingness to de-escalate (RT)

  • Trump plans to exempt carmakers from some tariffs (FT)

  • CEO pessimism in earnings hit its highest since 2009 (BBG)

  • US business activity grew at the slowest pace since 2023 (BBG)

  • Big US banks built $1.3T in capital to weather economic storm (BBG)

  • Bridgewater co-CIOs warn of 'exceptional risks' to US assets (RT)

  • Chinese dumped a record amount of Hong Kong stocks on Wednesday (BBG)

  • Jane Street overtook BofA and Citi with $20B trading revenues last year (BBG)

  • Warren Buffett now owns ~5% of all US T-bills (BN)

  • UBS is in talks to form a private credit JV with General Atlantic (BBG)

  • UK exec pay increases surpassed US rivals (FT)

  • Goldman Sachs won shareholder vote on $80M exec bonuses (BBG)

  • Short seller Andrew Left failed bid to end SEC fraud case (RT)

  • Former EY and PwC bosses launch UK boutique targeting Big Four clients (FT)

  • Sam Altman will step down as Oklo chairman (RT)

  • Discord named a new CEO as co-founder steps down ahead of IPO (BBG)

  • Florida sued Snapchat for addicting children and deceiving parents (RT)

  • Intel plans to cut over 20% of staff (BBG)

  • Nike plans to achieve the first 4-minute mile by a woman (BBG)

  • Americans considering bankruptcy soared to the highest since pre-Covid (CBS)

  • Firms are expanding back into London offices (BBG)

  • Trump pushes training for skilled trades that do not require college (RT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Stone Point Capital agreed to acquire a significant stake in administrative services provider Ultimus Fund Solutions from PE firm GTCR at a $2B valuation

  • Family office vehicle Selkirk made an unsolicited bid to acquire UK e-commerce firm THG's sports nutrition brand Myprotein for up to $800M, which THG rejected

  • Fast food chain Jack in the Box is exploring a sale of Del Taco, the chain it acquired for $585M in 2022, at a potential $200M valuation

  • Apollo is forming a JV with Bullrock Energy Ventures and invest up to $220M to develop community solar projects

  • Singapore SWF Temasek-owned port operator PSA International is exploring a sale of its 20% stake in Hong Kong infrastructure conglomerate CK Hutchison's ports business as CK Hutchison plans to sell its 80% holding to a BlackRock-led consortium

  • Polus Capital Management, the asset manager owned by Italian lender Mediobanca, is exploring strategic options amid peer lender BMPS's efforts to acquire peer Mediobanca

  • Japanese regional lenders Daishi Hokuetsu Financial and Gunma Bank are in final talks to merge

  • Mexican lender Banorte will again consider an acquisition of Banamex, Citigroup's regional retail unit which it split off last year

  • Shareholders of production studio Lions Gate Entertainment approved plans to split its film and TV studio from the Starz business

VC

  • Musk's brain-implant startup Neuralink is seeking to raise $500M at an $8.5B pre-money valuation

  • ChainGuard, an open source software and security startup, raised a $356M Series D at a $3.5B valuation led by Kleiner Perkins and IVP

  • Altruist, a modern custodian for financial advisors, raised a $152M Series F at a $1.9B valuation led by GIC

  • Biolinq, a healthtech startup providing precision multi-analyte biosensors, raised a $100M Series C led by Alpha Wave Ventures

  • Endor Labs, a tools to scan AI-generated code for vulnerabilities, raised a $93M Series B led by DFJ Growth

  • Noxtua, a sovereign AI for the German legal system, raised a $92.2M Series B led by C.H. Beck

  • Nourish, a nutrition counseling platform, raised a $70M Series B led by JPMorgan  Asset Management

  • Exowatt, a next-gen renewable energy company, raised a $70M Series A led by Felicis

  • Instrumentl, a grant management platform for nonprofits and universities, raised $55M in funding from Summit Partners

  • Alpaca, an API brokerage platform, raised a $52M Series C from Derayah Financial, 850 Management, National Investments Company Kuwait, and more

  • Healthee, an AI-powered platform for health benefits, raised a $50M Series B led by Key1 Capital

  • Northwood Space, a satellite infrastructure startup founded by ex-Disney star Bridgit Mendler, raised a $30M Series A led by Alpine Space Ventures and a16z

  • Symbiotic, a DeFi restaking protocol to rival EigenLayer, raised a $29M Series A led by Pantera

  • FundThrough, a fintech invoice factoring platform for SMBs, raised a $25M Series B led by Klister Credit

  • Swedish lending fintech Froda raised a $22.6M Series B led by Incore Invest

  • Salsa, an embedded payroll infrastructure provider, raised a $20M Series A led by Altos Ventures

  • Deep Infra, a cloud infrastructure startup providing AI model inference services, raised a $18M Series A led by Felicis and Georges Harik

  • Miggo Security, a runtime and real-time application detection & response platform, raised a $17M Series A led by SYN Ventures

  • Scamnetic, a startup protecting businesses and individuals from digital threats, raised a $13M Series A led by Roo Capital

  • Hokodo, a UK provider of digital trade finance, raised a $11.3M round led by Korelya Capital and Opera Tech Ventures

  • Bloom Credit, a cash flow reporting and credit data infrastructure platform, raised $10.5M in funding led by Crosslink Capital

  • VanishID, an agentic AI-powered digital executive protection company for enterprises, raised a $10M round led by Dell Technologies Capital

  • mirSense, a French startup building quantum cascade lasers, raised an $8M Series A led by Safran Corporate Ventures

  • Neurolabs, an Image Recognition as a Service (IRaaS) platform, raised a $7.8M Series A led by Nauta Capital

  • HelloSky, a talent intelligence platform for the executive search industry, raised a $5.5M seed round from Caldwell Partners, Karmel Capital, and more

  • Crowdpac, a platform for political engagement and small-dollar fundraising, raised a $4M round led by Chris Tavlarides

  • Adaptavate, a startup developing low carbon construction materials, raised a $3.6M pre-Series A from Undivided Ventures and Skreenhouse Ventures

  • Durin, a robotics startup automating critical minerals drilling, raised a $3.4M pre-seed round led by 8090 Industries

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Indian EV scooter maker Ather Energy now plans to IPO at a $1.4B valuation, 44% lower than its original target amid market volatility

  • Mining giant Vedanta Resources is considering raising over $1B in a US IPO of its Zambian unit Konkola Copper Mines

SPAC

  • Veraxa Biotech, a PortCo of Swiss biotech investor Xlife Sciences, will merge with Voyager Acquisition in a $1.64B deal

Debt

  • China plans to raise $40B is a special sovereign bonds sale as part of stimulus efforts

  • KKR raised $1.2B in private credit from Apollo, KKR, CVC, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, JPMorgan, and Jefferies to fund its $2.7B LBO of Swedish consumer health firm Karo Healthcare from EQT after sidestepping a syndicated loan deal

  • Indian conglomerate Adani Group is in talks to raise a $750M offshore loan for its airport unit

  • Italian gaming firm Lottomatica sold $684M in junk bonds in Europe's first junk bond deal in weeks

  • Riot Platforms raised a $100M credit facility from Coinbase, secured by a portion of Riot's Bitcoin holdings

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

  • WeightWatchers is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks after reaching a restructuring deal with most of its lenders

  • Struggling UK FX risk management firm Argentex is in advanced talks to raise emergency funding from FX solutions firm IFX Payments

Fundraising / Secondaries

  • Healthcare system Kaiser Permanente is seeking to sell $5B-$6B of private market LP stakes

  • Sculptor Capital Management raised $900M for its debut tactical credit fund

  • Infrastructure software-focused VC Venture Guides is close to raising $262M for its second fund

  • Italian biotech VC Claris Ventures announced a first close for a second $114M fund

  • Pritzker Alternative Strategies launched a dedicated family capital investment firm to allocate to PE funds

  • Macro hedge fund Autonomy Capital Research is seeking to raise outside capital after surging 54% last year

  • TwentyFour Asset Management launched a new asset-backed finance fund

  • Hedge fund AQR is raising external capital for two ML/AI strategies, which also powers one-fifth of trading signals in its flagship multi-strategy fund

  • PIMCO will launch a private credit fund in Europe for HNWIs

Crypto Sum Snapshot

  • Trump will host a private dinner with top holders of his memecoin (BBG)

Check out our Crypto Sum newsletter for the full stories on everything crypto!

Exec’s Picks

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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.