The Brief

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

“An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.”– Benjamin Graham

SUMMARY

MARKET & MACRO DATA

ECONOMICS, MARKETS & BUSINESS

• Smart ring start-up Oura delays IPO – Finnish-American company had been seeking a valuation of as much as $14bn Ask Claude ›
• Samsung Commits $1.0 Billion to AI Infrastructure Firm Backed by KKR, Nvidia – The investment in Helix Digital Infrastructure brings the platform’s total secured capital to more than $11 billion. Ask Claude ›
• Bond sell-off deepens and oil rises as Iran-US deal hopes fade – Brent crude jumps and 10-year Treasury yield surpasses 5.2% as hopes for US-Iran agreement fade Ask Claude ›
• Oil Prices and Bond Yields Keep Rising, Putting a Damper on Stocks – Wall Street fretted over Iran and fuel costs—as the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note reached a 19-year high. Ask Claude ›
• Which 10-year yield level will really start to hit stocks? Here's what history suggests Ask Claude ›
• Nvidia's record buyback shows chipmaker's stock is too cheap for CEO Huang to resist – Nvidia is looking to spend hundreds of billions of dollars buying its stock at a time when it's historically cheap based on earnings expectations. Ask Claude ›
• Trump’s municipal bond portfolio reaches as much as $1 billion as policy overlaps mount – President Donald Trump disclosed municipal bond holdings worth $300 million to $1 billion, including debt tied to issuers affected by federal policy. Ask Claude ›
• Julius Baer shares hit record high after Swiss regulator ends probe – Finma had opened enforcement proceedings over bank’s exposure to Austrian property group Signa Ask Claude ›
• U.S., European Government-Bond Yields Fall – U.S. Treasury yields reversed course and declined in early European trade, while eurozone government bond yields also fell as the rise in oil prices slowed slightly. Ask Claude ›
• Stock Futures Drift as Treasury Selloff Continues – The selloff in Treasurys showed no signs of easing, though markets were little moved as investors looked ahead to crucial inflation and jobs data from the U.S. later this week. Ask Claude ›
• Mistral CEO says U.S. AI safety debate masks competitors’ 'negligence' – Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch criticized rivals’ AI safety arguments as the industry faces scrutiny after several AI agents took unauthorized actions. Ask Claude ›
• Luckin Coffee weighs entry into Middle East markets, chairman tells CNBC – Luckin is weighing a push into Middle East markets while deepening its foothold in Southeast Asia, with backing from sovereign wealth funds in both regions. Ask Claude ›

TECH & AI

• OpenAI scraps rollout of new model over safety concerns – The firm also issued an update on incidents in which its models accessed Australian government systems. Ask Claude ›
• Protego Ventures closes debut $125 million fund for Israeli defense tech – Protego Ventures, the first and largest dedicated defense tech VC in Israel, just completed its final $125 million closing, TechCrunch learned exclusively. Ask Claude ›
• Ex-Tesla team raises $12.5M to put supply chains on autopilot – Atomic's agentic supply chain software is now being used by companies like DoorDash and HelloFresh. Ask Claude ›
• Peak XV ups Surge seed investment ceiling to $5M, unveils 18-startup cohort – Thirteen of the 18 startups in Peak XV’s latest Surge cohort are targeting global markets, while more than half are based in India. Ask Claude ›
• Aurora CFO says 30,000 driverless trucks by 2030 isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds – Self-driving truck company Aurora laid out an audacious plan for 2030. Its CFO says its targets aren't aspirational. Ask Claude ›
• Source: Inference provider Modal Labs closing in on $750M round at $15.75B valuation – The new financing is expected to more than triples the AI infrastructure startup's valuation from just four months ago. Ask Claude ›
• Shopify opens checkout to browser-based AI agents – Shopify is expanding WebMCP support to checkout, allowing browser-based AI agents to update order details and complete purchases with a buyer’s authorization. Ask Claude ›
• Tesla delays Roadster 2 event again due to bad weather – Tesla says the event "can only be held outdoors," as it's expected to show the car flying in some form using SpaceX thrusters. Ask Claude ›

WORLD & POLITICS

• Evicted Spanish pensioner can move back home, lawyer says – The eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, 87, prompted large-scale protests across Spain. Ask Claude ›
• Hurricane Polo makes landfall on Mexico's Pacific coast – The storm moved ashore on the Baja California peninsula, which is a popular tourist destination. Ask Claude ›
• Rights group accuses Vietnam of abducting Australian and Norwegian activists – Vietnam says the men entered the country illegally and accused them of planning terrorist activities. Ask Claude ›
• Seoul summons Ukraine envoy over North Korean prisoner-of-war row – Last week Zelensky revealed Ukraine had sent two captured North Koreans to South Korea - which Seoul says was meant to be a secret. Ask Claude ›
• Imams’ council condemns Melbourne Islamic preacher’s call to ‘take up arms’ against enemies – Independent MP Allegra Spender says the comments reinforce the need for stronger protection against hate speech Australia’s peak body for imams says it is “deeply concerned” about reports a Melbourne- Ask Claude ›
• Le Monde Béryl is pumping up New York – The British shoe brand celebrates its 10th birthday with a new store Ask Claude ›
• ‘Translation and connection are different things’: why languages remain useful at work – AI tools can do the basics but employers say local language skills help build relationships and understand cultural nuances Ask Claude ›
• North Korea Land Mines ‘Highly Likely’ Behind DMZ Explosion, Seoul Says – The blast injured three South Korean soldiers, prompting Seoul’s military to vow corresponding action if Pyongyang is the culprit. Ask Claude ›

DEALS

• Instinct, the San Francisco startup building a personal AI agent for everyday tasks, raised an additional $1 billion in Series C funding at a $10 billion valuation from Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue, just a month after a prior round had valued the company at $2.5 billion. Source ›
• SiMa.ai, a Sunnyvale-based physical-AI chipmaker that lets robots and drones run AI models on custom low-power silicon, raised $150 million in a Series C round co-led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Amplify Partners, valuing the company at $1.45 billion and lifting its total funding to $500 million. Source ›
• Quartermaster, an Arlington, Virginia-based maritime-defense and AI sensors startup, raised $140 million in a Series B round led by Insight Partners with participation from Overmatch Ventures, First Round Capital and debt financing from Stifel, bringing its total raised to roughly $183 million. Source ›
• Outmarketraised $34.5 million in a Series B round led by SignalFire with participation from Fika Ventures, Permanent Capital Ventures, TTV Capital and Dash Fund, bringing its total funding to $51.5 million. Source ›
• ACV Auctions, the publicly traded digital wholesale vehicle marketplace, agreed to be acquired by Copart for $10.50 per share in cash, an all-cash deal worth approximately $1.9 billion that represents a roughly 45% premium to ACV's unaffected share price and extends Copart's salvage-auction business into dealer-to-dealer remarketing. Source ›
• Priority Technology Holdings, the Nasdaq-listed payments and banking-technology provider, agreed to go private in a roughly $1.6 billion enterprise-value deal led by Chairman and CEO Thomas Priore, with unaffiliated shareholders set to receive $8.05 per share in cash – a 38% premium to its pre-announcement closing price – in a transaction backed by equity commitments from Searchlight Capital Partners. Source ›
• EPC Power Corp, a power-electronics maker, will be acquired by Flex Ltd. for $4.4 billion in cash, with the business set to become part of Flex's Cloud and Power Infrastructure unit ahead of that division's planned spin-off into an independent public company in early 2027. Source ›
• ITM Isotope Technologies Munich, a major supplier of radioactive materials used in cancer treatment, agreed to be acquired by Australia's Telix Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth as much as $2.35 billion, including $1.65 billion upfront and up to $700 million tied to regulatory and sales milestones for its neuroendocrine tumor drug candidate ITM-11. Source ›

EARNINGS RELEASES (next 15 days)

WEEK AHEAD

ON THE RADAR

Marz Capital – The Brief · Sourced from Yahoo Finance, BLS, StatsCan, FRED, CNBC, Reuters & web search · Note: some 1M/YTD/1Y market columns show n/a where data was unavailable at time of research · Treasury "ATH" reflects the past 20 years, not full history, since older-regime peaks (e.g. ~15% in 1981) aren't a meaningful comparison to today

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