Good afternoon,
If you checked your portfolio yesterday, you probably saw a sea of red. A single viral report from Citrini Research detailing AI disruption risks was enough to send software stocks into a tailspin. Combine that with Washington's aggressive new tariff threats and escalating crypto chaos, and we are seeing capital rotate at breakneck speed. Volatility is officially back on the menu, which means protecting your downside is priority number one. Let's cut through the noise and look at the numbers.
Getting started.
The Pulse
As of 02/23/2026 market close.
Markets
Fears over AI disruption and trade policy dragged all three major US stock indexes lower yesterday.
Sanctions have pushed Russian crude oil to its steepest discount since 2023.
Earnings
Domino's delivered a Q4 beat driven by 3.7% growth in same-store sales. Leadership unveiled aggressive plans to double the company's footprint while competitors falter (CNBC).
This week's lineup:
Today: AMC, Workday.
Wednesday: Nvidia, Salesforce, Circle.
Thursday: Warner Bros. Discovery and Duolingo
See the full calendar here.
Prediction Markets
Political systems don’t collapse on schedule. (Polymarket)
Headline Hunt
A senior Federal Reserve official indicated the US likely lost jobs over the past year (FT)
European leaders halted a US trade deal in response to the newly proposed tariffs (CNBC)
Analysts on Wall Street are attempting to rescue three underperforming recent IPOs with buy ratings (BBG)
Five countries in the EU voiced concerns over proposed relaxations to regional merger regulations (RT)
Anthropic filed accusations claiming three Chinese AI companies stole a significant amount of intellectual property (WSJ)
OpenAI expanded its consulting ties to drive enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence (RT)
The Deal Room
M&A / Investments
Uber announced plans to acquire the parking reservation platform SpotHero.
Paramount Skydance is stepping up its all-cash offer for Warner Bros. Discovery to $108 billion.
Shares of PayPal have lost half their value recently, sparking fresh takeover interest for the $40 billion payments company.
Gilead Sciences finalized a $7.8 billion acquisition of the cancer-focused biotechnology firm Arcellx.
Venture Flow
Anthropic is offloading secondary shares at a newly minted $350 billion valuation following a massive $30 billion fundraise.
IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades
Garden Investments acquired a stake in the $6.5 billion building supplier Fortune Brands and is pushing to oust the incoming chief executive.
MGC is weighing a Saudi public listing that would value the construction firm at roughly $4 billion.
Merck is restructuring by splitting its primary pharmaceutical business into two separate divisions for cancer and non-cancer treatments.
The Debt Desk
Abbott Laboratories issued $20 billion in bonds to finance its acquisition of Exact Sciences, marking one of the largest high-grade debt sales of the year.
Eversource Energy tapped the market for $1.5 billion in its first-ever hybrid bond issuance.
Acore Capital successfully closed a commercial real estate collateralized loan obligation worth $1.1 billion.
Crypto Corner
Binance dismissed staff members who identified $1 billion moving to sanctioned entities in Iran.
Dubai is rolling out a $16 billion tokenization plan to enable instant real estate flipping.
Vitalik Buterin is continuing his recent Ethereum selling spree.
Stablecoin issuers are projected to accumulate $1 trillion in Treasury bills by 2028.
SBI in Japan successfully issued a 10 billion onchain bond.
BNP Paribas is utilizing Ethereum for a new tokenization pilot program.
Crypto.com successfully secured approval for a national bank charter.
Five different cryptocurrency exchanges have been caught helping Russia bypass international sanctions.
The Netherlands implemented a full ban on the prediction market Polymarket.
Recommended Reading
Developers have trained an artificial intelligence model exclusively on Jeffrey Epstein’s released emails, sparking fresh debates over AI guardrails. Read the full interview here to see the results.
After a brief period of declining rents, Austin's housing market is pivoting back toward aggressive price growth. Review the underlying data here to see what is driving the shift.
Today’s Meme Pick
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