Exec Sum

All-stock M&A is at a multi-decade high, quant firms are breaking into fixed-income markets, Goldman expects buybacks to fuel a stock rally, Wall Street bonuses are expected to rise, and Gen Z is brewing an unhealthy relationship with credit cards.

US wants to tie finance exec pay to risk, PE is vying to get in on low-risk lending, Credit Suisse’s final CEO will depart UBS, banks are seeing lower loan demand, active managers are losing out to index trackers, and MrBeast split from his talent agent.

Lenders sued 777 Partners for fraud, VC deal flow is still stagnant, the job market is rapidly cooling, Taiwan’s ETF frenzy is raising eyebrows, SEC shut down Trump Media’s auditor, and retail investors are hungry for triple-leveraged ETFs…classic.

A fired SocGen trader is beefing on LinkedIn, hedge fund Segantii was criminally charged, high yield spreads are still tight, Goldman UK scrapped bonus caps, Tesla rescinded summer intern offers, and blacklisted Huawei is secretly funding US research.

Another Boeing whistleblower died, Australian business is booming, KKR sees PE deal flow recovering, chip stocks slumped on disappointing earnings, and Bitcoin had its worst month since FTX’s collapse.

PE is largely absent from recent IPOs, eurozone exited a recession, Dave & Buster’s will allow customers to bet on arcade games, Binance’s founder was sentenced to four months, and multi-strat HF Weiss filed for bankruptcy.

HSBC’s CEO unexpectedly resigned, PE firms are halting stake sales amid boycotts, US is cracking down on PE ownership of homes, energy and mining M&A is ripe for a boom, Tesla short-sellers got crushed, and Apollo was accused of a massive insurance fraud.

An ex-McKinsey partner sued the firm for being scapegoated, big asset managers are resorting to ‘vulture’ tactics, Elliott built a stake in one of Buffett’s investments, and regulators seized and sold Republic First Bank…yes, exactly one year after First Republic Bank.

Markets took a hit on weak economic data, Bill Gross said to avoid tech, S&P cut Boeing’s outlook to negative, US white-collar job growth has stalled, PwC named a new UK senior partner, and US birth rates fell to its lowest ever.

Norway’s SWF chief said ‘Europeans are less hard-working’ than Americans, Kim Kardashian’s PE firm is facing fundraising hurdles, McKinsey is under criminal investigation, KPMG UK canceled some foreign graduate job offers, and the TikTok sell-or-ban bill was signed into law.

Traders are now weighing a rate INCREASE, the FTC banned worker non-competes, O&G M&A hit a record high, investors are exiting Cathie Wood’s funds, Amazon launched a grocery subscription, and strong earnings helped lift markets.

Short sellers had their most profitable week ever, NYSE is testing appetite for 24/7 trading, rates traders are flocking from banks to hedge funds, Tesla shareholders are bracing for disappointing earnings, and a premier tail risk fund thinks rate cuts will signal a market crash.