Good afternoon,
Jamie Dimon is looking at today's credit markets and seeing the ghosts of 2008. At the same time, the US Department of Defense is pressuring Anthropic to strip away its AI safety guardrails, while retail traders pile into leveraged ETFs like a casino.
We are also seeing major shifts in corporate control. Bernard Arnault just locked down majority ownership of LVMH. In Europe, a German pension fund imploded after taking on too much private market exposure. Meanwhile, Anthropic rolled out new tools built specifically for Wall Street.
Getting started.
The Pulse
As of 02/24/2026 market close
Markets
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury dropped to its lowest level since November.
US equities bounced back yesterday as fears over AI disruption began to cool off.
Earnings
This week's lineup:
Today: Nvidia, Salesforce, Circle.
Thursday: Warner Bros. Discovery and Duolingo
See the full calendar here.
Prediction Markets
Deal or no deal. (Polymarket)
Headline Hunt
The founder of Citrini was stunned to see his own artificial intelligence prediction trigger a broader stock market selloff. (BBG)
The recent tech selloff sparked by AI anxiety has put a serious damper on the upcoming IPO pipeline. (WSJ)
JPMorgan announced that the UAE has become too wealthy to be classified as an emerging market. (BBG)
Jamie Dimon also confirmed he plans to stay on as the CEO of JPMorgan for at least a few more years. (RT)
Anthropic just launched a suite of new Claude products tailored for investment banking, wealth management, and private equity. (BBG)
The US Department of Defense issued a threat to Anthropic regarding the company's restrictive AI usage terms. (BBG)
DeepSeek out of China managed to train its AI model using Nvidia's top-tier chips despite strict US export bans. (RT)
A pension fund for German dentists blew up after taking on too much exposure to private market assets. (BBG)
Jeffrey Epstein maintained deep ties within JPMorgan for years after the bank officially dropped him as a client. (BBG)
The Deal Room
M&A / Investments
Warner Bros. Discovery is leaning toward the sweetened $112 billion takeover proposal from Paramount Skydance over the competing offer from Netflix.
Meta struck a $60 billion chip agreement with AMD. The deal will allow Meta to acquire a 10% equity stake in the $350 billion chipmaker.
Payments giant Stripe is weighing a potential buyout of either part or all of PayPal, which currently boasts a $40 billion market cap.
Blackstone and BlackRock are exploring an acquisition or investment into gas-powered microgrid builder VoltaGrid at a $10 billion valuation.
Venture Flow
Financial tech leader Stripe facilitated a secondary share sale at an enormous $159 billion valuation.
IPO / Direct Listings / Block Trades
CEO Bernard Arnault increased his ownership stake in $330 billion luxury conglomerate LVMH to 50.01%. The move grants him near-supermajority voting rights.
Distress Signals / Bankruptcy Watch
Spirit Airlines reached an agreement with note holders to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the second or third quarter. The plan slashes $5.3 billion in debt and lowers their overall fleet expenses.
More than 380 luxury brands, including heavyweights like LVMH, Kering, and Burberry, have restarted shipments to the bankrupt Saks Global. The retailer expects roughly $1.2 billion in merchandise to arrive soon as it attempts a turnaround.
Trade finance business Raistone Capital filed for Chapter 7 liquidation following the collapse of its client, auto parts supplier First Brands.
Fresh Capital
Sweden handed out $22 billion in pension mandates across 12 different managers. Asset managers Waystone and Swedbank Robur both walked away with two mandates each for active global equity funds.
Crypto
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
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