Good Morning! The US and Japanese governments intervened to prop up the yen on global currency markets, the first time the US strengthened the currency since 1998. Trump said Exxon and Chevron made "too much money" off high oil prices during the Iran conflict. And JPMorgan announced plans to invest $750 billion to boost the US housing supply and homeownership.

Palantir posted blowout Q2 numbers with US commercial revenue soaring nearly 150% (stock was up 15% after-hours). Zach Dell,  Michael Dell's son, is raising money to put a battery in your backyard at a $13 billion valuation. And Citadel sees a $500 billion chip financing debt binge coming in public and private markets by 2028.

Plus: Amazon joined the $3 trillion club as its post-earnings rally continues, FIFA ended its big PE plans, and boomers are leaving more than $1 trillion in art that they can’t sell.

There is a new status symbol amongst the high earners. It’s called Stelrix.

SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

Gen Z Is Retirement-Maxxing

Gen Z might have come up with looksmaxxing and vibesmaxxing. But now in 2026, some of them are all-in on retirement-maxxing.

On average, Gen Z has been excellent at saving for retirement, and the numbers are wild. Charles Schwab says Gen Z is starting to save and invest at 19, on average, compared to 32 for Gen X and 35 for Boomers.

Vanguard found that a third of Gen Z savers who put money into an IRA last year maxed it out at $7,000. And older Gen Z households already have nearly three times as much saved for retirement as Gen X households did at the same age back in 1989, even adjusted for inflation.

And honestly, it isn't just old-fashioned responsibility. There’s a touch of financial nihilism, just channeled the opposite direction. For Gen-Z, housing feels out of reach, Social Security's trust fund is on track to run dry in the early 2030s, AI is eating entry-level jobs, and the whole "climb the ladder, get promoted, retire comfortably" plan doesn't feel guaranteed anymore. So while some people gamble, others decide they'd rather have six figures invested before they turn 30.

Most of these savers aren't actually trying to retire at 35 and disappear to become goose farmers. What Gen-Z really wants is optionality. Bloomberg interviewed a 26-year-old consultant in Chicago with $100,000 saved who just wants enough cushion to avoid getting stuck by golden handcuffs, as well as a 24-year-old Amex analyst in the Bronx sitting on $92,000 between savings and brokerage accounts. The goal isn't early retirement; it’s making work optional instead of mandatory.

Of course there's a catch, and Vanguard has noticed some of these young savers are so locked in on the future that they're letting credit card debt pile up right now. Maxing your Roth while carrying a balance at 24% on your Chase Freedom card isn't really a wealth hack; it's more like betting against yourself.

Takeaway: Gen Z is taking Project Freedom seriously. One group looks at an uncertain future and leans into risk. The other looks at the same uncertain future and saves aggressively enough to build an exit. For some that exit is crypto, and for others it's $100,000 in a brokerage account, a beat-up Honda, and a spreadsheet literally named "escaping the matrix."

PRESENTED BY STELRIX

How the Rich Borrow Until They Die

ProPublica once calculated that America's 25 wealthiest paid a “true tax rate” of 3.4% on $401 billion in wealth growth*. Their playbook has three steps. 1. Buy assets that appreciate. 2. Borrow against them when cash is needed. Since loan proceeds aren't income, no tax bill arrives. 3. Then die, because heirs inherit at a stepped-up basis, meaning decades of embedded gains are wiped clean for tax purposes and the estate simply settles the loans. Larry Ellison has pledged billions in Oracle stock this way for years. Stelrix introduces the borrow step, with an investment-backed credit card, to portfolios without a private banker.

Explore Stelrix's Instagram for more luxury and finance news and sign-up for their waitlist today.

HEADLINES

Top Reads

• The US has stepped in to buy Japanese yen (CNN)

• Trump says Exxon and Chevron made 'too much money' off high oil prices during Iran conflict: 'I don't like it' (CNBC)

• JPMorgan Chase to invest $750 billion to boost U.S. housing supply, homeownership (WSJ)

• Palantir surges with U.S. commercial revenue soaring nearly 150% (CNBC)

• Zach Dell is raising money to put a battery in your backyard (WSJ)

• Citadel Securities sees a $500 billion chip financing debt binge (BB)

• Amazon joins elite list of stocks to top $3 trillion in value (BB)

• Red card on FIFA's private equity plans (Axios)

• The great wealth transfer includes $1 trillion in art (BB)

• Blackstone, EQT weigh majority stake buys in two precision engineering firms (VCCircle)

• Robinhood private company fund to back Y Combinator startups (BB)

• This high-powered real estate fund is run by college students (WSJ)

• KKR to buy Integer Holdings for $4.3 billion (WSJ)

• TotalEnergies sells stake in European renewable assets to KKR (WSJ)

• Pharma giants AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers in reported merger talks (Axios)

• OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Thinking Machines fight for AI talent (Axios)

• Sequoia leads $1 billion funding round for nuclear startup Valar (BB)

• Millennium lost 2% last month as AI trade whipsawed hedge funds (BB)

• ChatGPT dominates early AI spending in Congress as lawmakers weigh regulation (CNBC)

• Japan yen intervention: why the U.S. stepped in (CNBC)

• Jefferies analyst slams 'simple-minded' criticism of SpaceX governance (BB)

CAPITAL PULSE

Markets Rundown

Market Update

• Stocks rose as WTI crude fell about 5% to near $80 after President Trump paused planned Iran strikes for diplomacy; the 10-year Treasury yield fell below 4.7%.

• Consumer discretionary and communication services led sector gains; the ISM Manufacturing PMI hit its highest level since May 2022.

• Over 100 S&P 500 companies report this week, with Friday's nonfarm payrolls the key labor data release.

Earnings Season

• About 61% of the S&P 500 has reported, with 86% beating estimates; Q2 earnings are on pace to grow nearly 45% year over year.

• Technology, communication services, consumer discretionary, and energy are each on pace for growth above 65%; the Russell Midcap Index is on pace for over 20%.

• Nonfarm payrolls have averaged 92,000 jobs per month through June, with the unemployment rate at 4.2%.

 Movers & Shakers

• (+) CoreWeave ($EBAY) +19% after Truist upgraded to Buy following a 42% pullback, while strong Big Tech earnings reinforced demand.

• (+) Amazon ($AMZN) +5% because of a post-earnings rally leading the company to reach a $3 trillion market cap for the first time.

• (–) GameStop ($GME) -12% after announcing a private exchange of $1.4 billion in convertible senior notes for equity.

Prediction Markets

• This is the first earnings call since SpaceX’s IPO.

• Trade on real-world events with Kalshi. Use code OWS to get a $10 bonus when you trade $10.

Private Dealmaking

• Curium agreed to buy Lantheus, a radiopharma company, for around $8 billion

• KKR agreed to acquire Integer, a medical device outsourcer, for $5.7 billion

• Prysmian agreed to buy Atkore, an electrical manufacturer, for $3.8 billion

• Visa agreed to acquire BioCatch, an Israeli fraud intelligence company, for $2.4 billion

• American Family Mutual Insurance agreed to acquire Bowhead Specialty Holdings for around $1.2 billion

• Base Power, a home battery startup, raised $1 billion

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

BOOK OF THE DAY

Talk

Description:
A groundbreaking guide from Alison Wood Brooks, a Harvard Business School professor and leading researcher on the psychology of conversation. Drawing on years of behavioral science research, the book reveals the hidden structure behind successful conversations and explains why even small improvements in how we communicate can transform our relationships, careers, and everyday interactions. Brooks introduces practical frameworks for asking better questions, navigating difficult discussions, building trust, and becoming a more engaging, empathetic conversationalist.

Book Length: 336 pages
Release Date: January 21, 2025

Ideal For:
Professionals, leaders, entrepreneurs, salespeople, and anyone looking to improve communication, build stronger relationships, and become a more confident and effective conversationalist.

The best conversations don't happen by chance, they happen because someone is intentional enough to make the other person feel heard.

DAILY VISUAL

Gen X is Losing Confidence

PRESENTED BY BLUEFLAME AI

"AI Helped Us Close Deals We Would Have Missed"

That’s what 1,000 dealmakers said last month in a survey conducted by Datasite, Blueflame’s parent company, and FT Longitude, and nearly one in four said AI has already helped them close a deal they would have otherwise missed. 62% now say relying on human judgment alone is no longer defensible in complex deals.

The industry is past AI experimentation. Currently, half of deal teams have AI embedded in their due diligence. But the study draws a hard line between firms bolting on generic tools and firms building AI into how the deal team actually operates.

Private equity firms and investment banks are choosing Blueflame AI to do the latter. Amp, Blueflame's AI agent for dealmaking, takes on the process-heavy work like reviewing data rooms, surfacing red flags, comparing targets, and it leaves the decision making to the deal team.

Learn how Blueflame can help your deal team today.

DAILY ACUMEN

Attribution Error

When someone else misses a deadline, the instinct is to conclude they are disorganized. When you miss one yourself, the instinct is to explain that the market moved, the data arrived late, the week fell apart. Same failure, two different explanations, and the pattern is consistent enough across contexts that psychologists gave it a name: the fundamental attribution error.

We explain our own failures with circumstance and other people's failures with character. It runs in one direction with startling reliability, and it quietly poisons how teams evaluate each other. The analyst who blew a call gets filed away as sloppy. The manager who made the identical call, under identical pressure, remembers every factor that made it forgivable.

The correction is uncomfortable but simple. Before judging someone's miss, extend the same generosity you would give yourself. Before excusing your own, ask honestly whether character had more to do with it than you want to admit. Most conflict on a desk is not a disagreement about facts. It is two people applying this error to each other at the same time.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

• Why bad intentions feel more real

• The 7 best espresso makers for coffee geeks

• Frozen yogurt is back, but not how you might remember it

• How to deal with failure and stick with hard things

• How to get a good night sleep

MEME-A-PALOOZA

Memes of the Day

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