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Quant hedge funds suffered their worst day in two years, gains in AI stakes gave a boost to S&P 500 earnings, Bessent said interventionary bond buybacks could increase further, and the founder of China Evergrande, once Asia's richest man, was sentenced to life in prison and forced to forfeit virtually all his personal possessions.

Mizuho published some interesting insights on the investing landscape in Japan. One that explains the rush of activist investors and PE megafunds into the country. Read more here.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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Markets

• US stocks and bonds continued their downward momentum as investors brushed off the Treasury's intervention efforts

• Cryptos climbed after the Treasury's unusual bond market intervention boosted risk assets

Earnings

• Walmart issued a Q2 beat-and-raise on e-commerce growth and tariff refunds but shares tumbled 9% as sales growth slowed to a six-year low (CNBC)

• Alibaba posted a 75% drop in Q2 profits due to higher AI spending though cloud revenue rose 45% (CNBC)

• Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

• Anthropic's IPO plans now involve simply raising more than whatever SpaceX raised

• Deposit $10 and get a $20 bonus with code LIT on signup, only on the Polymarket US app

Headline Roundup

• Stock investors are ignoring 'elephant in the room' bond yields (BBG)

• Bessent says interventionary bond buybacks could increase further (RT)

• JPMorgan sees credibility risk in Treasury's buybacks (BBG)

• Gains in AI company stakes juiced S&P 500 Q2 earnings (RT)

• Riskier AT1s are most stable in upside-down bond market (BBG)

• Japan medium bonds saw the largest foreign outflow since 2006 (BBG)

• Quant hedge funds suffered their worst day in two years (FT)

• Asia businesses struggle to shake off influence of founding families (WSJ)

• SpaceX is racking up wins in Washington (WSJ)

• SK Hynix workers will get 60% of this year's bonus in stock (RT)

• Nvidia denied reports of China AI chip by year-end (RT)

• DOJ sought Egan-Jones records to probe Mark Walter (BBG)

• Crypto, AI and betting firms fuel record spending on 2026 midterms (RT)

• Founder of China Evergrande was sentenced to life in prison (RT)

• Fashion founder Christine Hunsicker was sentenced to five years for $300M fraud (BBG)

• Foreign students applying to US colleges fell 10% this year (BBG)

A Message from Mizuho

Japan's economy has entered a significant new phase and global investors continue to spend more time in the region. After 30 years, Japan has moved from experiencing deflation to inflation, and from stagnation to a booming economy. Wages are up, businesses are increasing returns on invested capital and creating meaningful shareholder value, and Japanese households are shifting money from deposits to investments.

For global investors, the changes have created the most compelling opportunity to invest in Japan in decades, with a structural growth story replacing a long term valuation narrative. While the Japan markets have been admittedly robust, there are still significant areas of uncovered opportunities.

Deal Flow

M&A / Strategic

• Italian lender BMPS approved plans ‌to bid for rival Banco BPM and wealth manager Banca General to counter a $42B takeover from peer Intesa Sanpaolo

• KKR-owned sports PE firm Arctos Partners agreed to acquire a 10% in NFL team Atlanta Falcons at a $10.6B valuation; Arctos already holds stakes in three other NFL teams

• Canadian engineering consulting firm WSP Global will press ahead with plans to acquire Dutch peer Arcadis despite having ​two unsolicited offers at a $6.3B valuation, including debt, rejected

• Continental Resources agreed to buy 50% of Argentinian shale oil firm Phoenix Global Resources from Mercuria Energy to form a JV with a combined $4B of new investment

• CVC and UK lenders Lloyds, Shawbrook, and Metro Bank are preparing potential $2.7B ‌bids for UK challenger bank Aldermore as South African banking group FirstRand explores a sale

• Carlyle-backed data analytics firm YipitData is exploring a $2.5B sale

• Thai construction firm Stecon Group plans to bid for three data-center construction projects worth a combined $1.5B

• Singapore state-owned CapitaLand Investment and Malaysian developer IOI Properties are nearing a deal to buy iconic Singaporean office complex One Raffles Place from OUE REIT for $1.9B

• Swiss building materials ‌supplier Holcim will acquire part of the European business of James Hardie Industries for $980M

• Orion CMC, a US-backed consortium, is in talks to invest $500M for a minority stake in Kabanga Nickel, a large nickel project in Tanzania

• T. Rowe Price agreed to acquire $20B AUM fixed income asset manager F/m Investments

• J&J heir and New York Jets-owner Woody Johnson agreed to buy a minority stake in the Aston Martin F1 Team from owner Lawrence Stroll

• Philippine mining group Dominion Holdings will merge with Indophil Resources and Sonar Holdings in a consolidation effort

• UK-based Fidelity International plans to ​exit its wholly-owned China fund unit

• Warburg Pincus, Stone Point, Reverence Capital, Sixth Street, and Bayview are exploring a sale of online bank EverBank three years after acquiring it from TIAA amid disagreements on how to run the firm

VC

• Satellite startup Muon Space raised a $250 Series C led Eclipse Capital

• Math Magic, a Chinese AI 3D creation platform, raised a $50M Series A+ led by BAI Capital and HyT Capital

• Apollo Atomics, an MIT spinoff building next-gen pressurized water reactors, raised a $31M oversubscribed seed round led by FCVC

• Twin1, a startup building digital twins for lawyers, raised a $20M seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and others

• Astromech, an evolutionary biology AI company, raised $20M at a $3.8B valuation led by biotech investor Bob Nelsen

• Anything AI, a startup building AI agents and a no-code app-building platform, raised an $11M round at a $100M valuation backed by Footwork, Uncork Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and M13

• Beldex, a privacy-focused blockchain infrastructure for Web3 and AI, raised $8M in new funding led by Sigma Capital

• Mafix, an industrial technology startup converting abundant rocks into carbon-negative silicon fertilizers, raised a $5.4M pre-seed round led by Azolla Ventures

Access the complete VC deal flow and data on Fundable

IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Anthropic expects to match or top SpaceX's record $86B IPO; the firm will add Citigroup to its IPO line up alongside Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs. and JPMorgan

• Quant hedge fund D.E. Shaw has a 2.5% stake in $40B-listed food distributor Sysco

• SHEIN is targeting a $25B valuation in its Hong Kong IPO in two weeks

• Specialty home insurer Orion180 Insurance filed for an IPO

• TPG-backed Korean ride-hailing firm Kakao Mobility is considering listing ADRs in US

Debt

• Broadcom is in talks with lenders to raise $60B-$70B in ​debt for an AI chip financing deal that will benefit ‌Anthropic and others

• PGIM, the asset manager of Prudential Financial, will buy $3B of loans from ​home improvement lender GreenSky

• French defense company Thales sold a $1.2B bond to help fund its acquisition of maritime robotics firm Exail Technologies

• Seed company Vylor sold $1.1B of investment grade bonds ahead of its spinoff from agriculture giant Corteva

• Carlyle-backed roof shingle-maker TAMKO Building Products reported a 50% drop in earnings just weeks after a $415M dividend recap

• Clearlake-backed healthcare RCM firm FinThrive drew on a $150M credit line to bolster liquidity after earrings fell 17%

• Kazakhstan's SWF Samruk-Kazyna is preparing to step up international bond sales

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• A $1.2B loan to Guggenheim fell into distressed territory on concerns of CEO Mark Walter's federal investigation

• United World, led by a Saudi prince, filed a winding-up petition against COH Sports Bidco Limited, the ex-owner of UK soccer club Sheffield United, over $47M of debt

• Texas oil tycoon Albert Huddleston emerged as the mystery bidder anchoring a proposal by Glencore and others to take control of troubled Cuba-focused Canadian nickel and cobalt producer Sherritt International

Funds / Secondaries

• BlackSun, a new sports and media PE firm backed by Obama officials and sports legends, raised $1B for a targeted $7B debut fund

• CQS, the credit investment manager of Canadian insurance giant Manulife, is seeking to raise $1B for its fourth SRT fund

• Growth capital firm EMERGING and UK mid-market PE firm Promethean Investments launched a $300M fund to invest in AI for hospitality and entertainment

• Cognition, the new VC firm of ex-CrowdStrike CTO Elia Zaitsev, is seeking to raise a $170M debut fund to invest in AI cybersecurity

Crypto Sum Snapshot

• Bitcoin's short squeeze leaves rally hunting for real buyers

• Crypto liquidations hit $3B on sudden crypto rally

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

Exec's Picks

• CNBC published a transcript of their full interview with Scott Bessent following his bond market intervention. You can read it or watch the interview here

• Bloomberg published a detailed report illustrating how America's lead in the AI race with China is rapidly narrowing.

• Ben Carlson shared an interesting and somewhat philosophical perspective on the necessity of bear markets.

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.