Markets 24-Hour Briefing

Public Markets

Last updated: October 24, 2026, 4:40 AM ET

Oil & Energy

Oil futures wsj.com rose on fears of Middle East escalation, with Brent crude nytimes.com surging toward $116 to $117 a barrel, its highest level since April. Oil prices closed the week solidly higher wsj.com as traders stayed on edge over the conflict with Iran. The CFTC said it is reviewing oil trading bloomberg.com under its market-oversight remit, while retail traders are using VPNs bloomberg.com to reach offshore platforms for round-the-clock oil trading. Refining margins wsj.com are heading to all-time highs as fuel markets tighten. SLB bloomberg.com reported gradual recovery in Middle East oilfield activity, while its third-quarter revenue rose 5.8% wsj.com to $9.45 billion.

Equities

U.S. stocks fell as oil hit a five-month high wsj.com, and the Dow slid wsj.com while the Nasdaq stemmed its weekly loss wsj.com. An AI trade stumble bloomberg.com sent investors back into Treasuries, and Meta reignited AI spending fears ft.com. Volvo Cars shares plunged ft.com as much as 30% after the carmaker swung to a loss and announced 2,500 more job cuts. General Motors bloomberg.com suffered its worst week since 2023 amid a wider autos selloff. American Express raised its profit outlook wsj.com on stronger member spending, even as it cuts 3,500 jobs wsj.com. Gold fell below $4,000 ft.com as the haven asset joined the sell-off.

Fixed Income & Funding

Hedge funds hold a record short bloomberg.com in U.S. natural gas on a mild winter outlook, and U.S. natural gas futures fell wsj.com on mild near-term weather. Municipal bond sales topped $500 billion bloomberg.com at a record pace. French bond risk bloomberg.com rose another week as political crisis deepened, though Moody's kept France's Aa3 rating ft.com with a negative outlook. Repo markets may face volatility bloomberg.com in a late clearing push, CIBC warned. Hedge funds lifted bearish euro bets bloomberg.com to their largest since 2020.

Deals & Corporate

Barilla paid $750 million in cash bloomberg.com for Goodles, while BASF raised its bid for Evonik bloomberg.com to more than €11 billion. Jio's $3.1 billion IPO bloomberg.com drew strong demand despite an Indian market rout. Citi won approval ft.com for its China securities business. Bombardier will invest $270 million wsj.com in U.S. expansion. Booz Allen lifted its earnings outlook wsj.com. Kering shares plunged wsj.com as the Gucci recovery stalled. Rogers beat estimates bloomberg.com on sports and advertising growth, though its stock fell. CMOC's earnings jumped 68% bloomberg.com on a copper rally. Anthropic and Hg are launching ft.com a European AI consultancy.

Markets Structure & Regulation

Cboe has captured nearly half ft.com of U.S. ETF listings as challengers target NYSE and Nasdaq. A NYSE options exchange halted trading bloomberg.com over a technical issue. Hong Kong is weighing ft.com an end to its lunch break. S&P's new rules bloomberg.com will reshuffle growth and value stocks. Brokers are seeking to loosen investor protections wsj.com.

Coming Up

The Brazil runoff bloomberg.com is too close to call, with markets bracing for volatility. Repo clearing bloomberg.com faces a 2027 deadline.

Private Equity

Last updated: October 23, 2026, 10:40 PM ET

Venture Capital & Startup Funding

Top investors from Iconiq and Sapphire Ventures, along with Superhuman Mail founder Rahul Vohra, are questioning the traditional red flags techcrunch.com used to judge product-market fit. Meanwhile, a new Carta and NewView partnership techcrunch.com aims to persuade more startups to let employees sell shares early. AI continued to dominate fundraising, as the week's ten largest rounds news.crunchbase.com showed a varied lineup of large AI-driven financings.

Private Equity Deals & Fundraising

Blackstone closed peinsights.substack.com its fifth energy fund at an $8.7bn hard cap. Ara Partners reached a final close peinsights.substack.com on its debut energy fund at $2.5bn. Goldman Sachs Alternatives agreed peinsights.substack.com to acquire a majority stake in Inflexion-backed Celnor, while TA Associates peinsights.substack.com took a majority stake in Belgian orthopaedic medtech Med Envision.

Institutional Investors & Returns

CalPERS, the $640bn California pension fund peinsights.substack.com is reducing its Big Tech exposure while leaning further into private equity. Tikehau Capital returned €2.2bn peinsights.substack.com to its limited partners so far this year, though it cautioned about its 2026 profit targets. Early backers of Anthropic are already sitting on substantial paper gains techcrunch.com ahead of its anticipated IPO.

Legal, Regulatory & Deal Flow

AI agents are creating new trade secret risks news.crunchbase.com by giving employees access to proprietary expertise. Among smaller rounds, robot training, space laser and greener cement news.crunchbase.com startups drew investor attention. In Europe, Oslo's tech scene sifted.eu continues to struggle to break out from Stockholm's shadow, and Nvidia's European startup investments sifted.eu are flowing largely back into Nvidia's own chips. Investors are also tracking promising early-stage Italian startups sifted.eu identified by VCs.

Sector Investment

Last updated: October 23, 2026, 3:40 PM ET

Real Estate Private Markets

The PERE Awards 2026 perenews.com are now accepting submissions, inviting industry input on the groups, individuals and events that made the greatest impact on the sector.

Healthcare Private Equity

Arcventis Health Partners has completed a majority growth investment thehealthcareinvestor.com in Aligned Modern Health, marking another deal in the healthcare and life sciences buyout landscape.

Digital Infrastructure

Digital infrastructure now dominates North American fundraising infrastructureinvestor.com, even as nearshoring policy priorities meet growing hurdles for data centre development.

Coming Up

The PERE Awards submission window perenews.com is currently open for industry nominations.