Good Morning! eBay suspended GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen, accusing him of "putting the eBay community at risk" amid his $56B takeover bid. The billionaire widow of OnlyFans founder Leonid Radvinsky has taken control of OnlyFans. And ex-JPM banker Chirayu Rana has hired an attorney who has repped Jeffrey Epstein accusers.

Elon Musk's co-parent says he offered Sam Altman a Tesla board seat around 2017 and 2018 before their OpenAI falling out. Google launched a $100 Fitbit Air to compete with Whoop. And Apple is in late-stage development of AirPods with built-in cameras.

Plus: Most AI systems in trading contests lose money, and what sets successful CEOs apart from the average.

Invest in real assets to hedge inflation. Explore farmland investing with AcreTrader today.

SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

Wall Street Bonus Increases Coming

Wall Street bonuses are projected to rise for the third year in a row, with M&A and ECM teams expected to see incentive pay jump 10% to 20%+ this year, according to Johnson Associates. 

The rebound is being driven by two very Wall Street-friendly forces: volatility and dealmaking. M&A advisory is recovering, equity issuance is heating up, and trading desks have been feasting on market swings across stocks, rates, and commodities.

Alan Johnson, who runs Johnson Associates, summed it up and said “it’s the year of the bank.” He also described it as a “horse race between trading and M&A advisory,” which means both sides of the house are suddenly feeling pretty good.

The bumps are not evenly distributed. M&A and equity bankers are looking at 10% to 20% or more. Equity traders are expected to see 10% to 15%. Fixed income gets a more modest 5% to 10%. Wealth management is up around 5%, helped by inflows and talent competition. Private credit employees may see bonuses flat to up 5%.

This all comes after 2025’s bonus pool already hit a record $49.2 billion, with the average Wall Street bonus rising 6% to $246,900. The difference now is that 2026 is starting to look less like a one-off rebound and more like a full-blown comeback.

Takeaway: Wall Street’s bonus drought is officially fading. M&A is back, equity issuance is alive, trading desks are printing, and the biggest banks just posted their most profitable first quarter ever. The only thing standing between Wall Street and a very happy comp season is the usual cocktail of war, rates, tariffs, and markets doing something stupid right before bonus committees meet. As Johnson put it, “things are surprisingly optimistic again, knock on wood, for now.”

See live compensation and bonus Wall Street 360.

PRESENTED BY ACRETRADER

The Asset Class You Can Walk On

The savvy investor looks for under-explored asset classes. AcreTrader gives you access to one that helps put dinner on your plate: US farmland.

US farmland is worth $3.82 trillion. While past performance is not a guarantee of future results*, it’s generated positive returns every year for the past 30 years, while assets like gold and stocks have fluctuated. And, supply and demand are fundamental drivers for the farmland market: US acreage is shrinking while the global population grows.

AcreTrader gives exposure to this real, tangible asset and provides a way to round out your portfolio with an effective inflation hedge.

Explore farmland investing with AcreTrader and see their new fund here.

HEADLINES

Top Reads

• EBay bans GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen for putting community ‘at risk’ (MW)

• OnlyFans billionaire widow takes control of company (BB)

• Ex-JPMorgan banker Chirayu Rana hired lawyer who repped Epstein accusers (NYP)

• Mother of Musk's children says he offered Altman a Tesla board seat (CNBC)

• Pentagon watchdog declines to probe Kid Rock flights (BB)

• Ryan Cohen's mysterious bank letter backing his eBay bid reveals a big issue with deal (CNBC)

• Google launches $100 Fitbit Air to compete with Whoop (BB)

• Apple's camera-equipped AirPods reach advanced testing stage in AI device push (BB)

• AI bots auditioning for Wall Street trading are mostly losing (BB)

• Carlyle sees market opportunities with a record $96 billion to invest (WSJ)

• Planet Fitness slashes 2026 views after weak signups (WSJ)

• Apollo aims to open second headquarters outside NYC in latest fallout from Mamdani's war on the wealthy (NYP)

• US opens tariff refund portal, with checks expected this summer (YF)

• Airbnb boosts annual sales outlook (YF)

• Elite M&A lawyers fed massive insider trading ring, US alleges (BB)

• Paul Tudor Jones says U.S. is late to regulating AI: 'We should have already done it' (CNBC)

• Private credit fund touts quick profit buying debt at 65 cents (BB)

CAPITAL PULSE

Markets Rundown

Market Update

• Stocks pulled back as investors awaited Iran’s response to a proposed diplomatic framework

• Weakness was broad-based, with energy and materials leading declines after oil prices rebounded

• Treasury yields moved higher, with the 10-year yield rising to 4.38%

• International markets were more constructive, led by another record high in Japan’s Nikkei

• The U.S. dollar strengthened modestly as investors turned slightly more defensive

Labor Market Still Stable

• Weekly jobless claims rose modestly but remained below expectations

• Continuing claims declined, suggesting unemployed workers are still finding jobs relatively quickly

• Recent labor data continues to point toward a stable, slower-growth employment backdrop rather than deterioration

• Wage growth likely remains modestly above inflation, helping support consumer spending

• Today’s payroll report will be key, with expectations centered around moderate job growth and a steady unemployment rate

Earnings Remain the Core Bullish Driver

• Earnings season continues to exceed expectations in a major way

• With most companies reported, S&P 500 earnings growth estimates have surged far above where they started the quarter

• Technology remains the standout, driven by AI and cloud infrastructure demand

• Communication services and materials are also posting exceptionally strong growth

• Importantly, earnings strength is broadening beyond just a handful of mega-cap names, helping improve overall market breadth and diversification

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Datadog ($DDOG) +10% after crushing Q1 estimates and raising full-year revenue guidance to $4.32B from $4.08B.

• (+) Shake Shack ($SHAK) -28%  because Q1 earnings and revenue at the fast casual chain both missed estimates.

• (–) Planet Fitness ($PLNT) -31% after net new member adds declined 36% year-over-year during peak sign-up season.

Prediction Markets

• With oil prices currently at $101, traders are predicting a large uptick to end the week.

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

Private Dealmaking

• Angelini Pharma agreed to acquire Catalyst Pharma, a rare disease biotech, for around $4.1 billion

• Roche agreed to acquire PathAI, a digital pathology company, for $1.05 billion

• Kalshi, a predictions marketplace, raised $1 billion

• Anagram Therapeutics, a biotech focused on pancreatic insufficiency, raised $250 million

• Corgi, an insurer for startups, raised $160 million

• RadixArk, a startup seeking to make AI inference and training more efficient, raised $100 million

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

BOOK OF THE DAY

Risk & Reward

Description:
A practical investing guide from Ben Carlson on navigating uncertainty while staying focused on long-term wealth creation. The book explains how volatility is not something to fear but something to understand and manage. Through clear examples and behavioral insights, it shows how disciplined investing, patience, and realistic expectations can outperform emotional decision-making over time.

Book Length: 240 pages
Release Date: May 12, 2026

Ideal For:
Investors looking to better understand market volatility, improve emotional discipline, and build sustainable long-term wealth.

The biggest investing advantage is not predicting the future it is staying disciplined when uncertainty rises.

DAILY VISUAL

Excel and Jevons Paradox

PRESENTED BY DALOOPA

Supercharge Your AI Tools with Daloopa

High-quality data has become more critical than ever as investment firms build AI-powered financial workflows. 

Daloopa solves this challenge by delivering the most comprehensive and accurate fundamental dataset, spanning thousands of KPIs for 5,500+ tickers globally. Each data point is also linked to its original source for full traceability.   

Companies like Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Perplexity have chosen Daloopa for financial data connectors to enhance their users’ investment research workflows. 

Daloopa’s LLM-agnostic MCP can easily plug and play with your AI tool of choice, providing a reliable data layer for inflection tracking, benchmarking, due diligence and more.

Check it out today to see how investors are accelerating their decision making with Daloopa.

DAILY ACUMEN

Exercise Snacks

A two-minute set of bodyweight exercises performed two or three times during a workday, what physiologists call exercise snacks, has been shown to produce metabolic and cardiovascular improvements comparable to formal workouts.

The mechanism is simple. The body does not particularly care whether your activity comes in one block or several. It just cares that it happens.

The implication for anyone whose calendar destroys any hope of a real gym routine is significant.

You do not need an hour you do not have. You need two minutes, repeated, embedded in the day. A flight of stairs taken fast. A set of squats between meetings. A short walk after lunch.

The barrier to consistent exercise is almost never time. It is the belief that anything less than the full workout is not worth doing.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

• Build 3 statement models, DCFs and LBOs in 10 minutes**

• Why you should add eggs to your protein rotation

• What sets successful CEOs apart from the average

• I’ve used venture capital, now I’ve found a better way to build a company

• The emotional security secret

• 9 entrepreneurs on how to turn a side hustle into a business 

MEME-A-PALOOZA

Memes of the Day

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