Good Morning! Dealmaking is heating up this summer, with investment banking fees on the rise. Alphabet, Google's parent company, is in advanced talks to acquire the cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion, which would mark its largest acquisition ever. Former President Trump survived an assassination attempt, AT&T announced a massive data breach, and summer is heating up office tensions. Plus, how a CitiBike thief rode a bike 38 miles around NYC, racking up $80 in charges.

Looking for niche private market opportunities led by a Wall Street veteran with skin in the game? Check out today’s sponsor, 10 East.

_{SQUEEZ OF THE DAY}

Banking is Back

JPMorgan Chase crushed Q2 revenue expectations last week, thanks to an investment banking uptick.

Year-over-year? Investment banking fees surged 52%. JPMorgan made $2.3 billion in investment banking fees last quarter - exceeding the StreetAccount estimate by $300 million.

Equities trading also contributed to the beat, with revenue rising 21% to $3 billion, beating estimates by $230 million on strong derivatives results.

And in general, revenue rose 20% across the entire bank to almost $51 billion. Most analysts expected revenue to come in at a little under $50 billion. 

But shares still fell around 1% on Friday. The reason? Inflation is weighing on banks like JPMorgan - with overall deposits dropping and losses piling up from credit.

CEO Jamie Dimon remains cautious about future risks, warning investors that the boost in banking revenue might not be sustainable, especially given geopolitical and inflation concerns.

Citi and Wells Fargo also reported earnings last week, while Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley are set to release their earnings this week.

Takeaway: Investment banking revenue has long served as a key indicator of economic health. When banking fees rise, it often signals that both the bank and the broader economy are performing well. And during banking dealmaking slumps? It’s usually rough out there for everyone else.

Dimon is trying to sound the alarm that we’re not out of the woods yet - time will tell whether the dealmaking pickup is here to stay, or if this is just a one-time blip.

_{PRESENTED BY 10 EAST}

Where Sophisticated Investors Access Private Markets

10 East, led by Michael Leffell, allows qualified individuals to invest alongside private market veterans in vetted deals across private credit, real estate, niche venture/private equity, and other one-off investments that aren’t typically available through traditional channels.   

Benefits of 10 East membership include:    

• Flexibility – members have full discretion over whether to invest on an offering-by-offering basis.   

• Alignment – principals commit material personal capital to every offering.    

• Institutional resources – a dedicated investment team that sources, monitors, and diligences each offering.   

10 East is where founders, executives, and portfolio managers from industry-leading firms diversify their personal portfolios.  

There are no upfront costs or minimum commitments associated with joining 10 East.

_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• The median salary in the 25 biggest U.S. cities (CNBC)

• AT&T announces massive data breach (Axios)

• Google is close to a $23 billion acquisition of cybersecurity startup Wiz (CNBC)

• Wall Street banks see investment banking improvement (Reuters)

• Wholesale prices rose 0.2% in June, slightly hotter than expected (CNBC)

• How summer heats up office tensions (Axios)

• New era of private credit growth highlights its opaque nature (Reuters)

• CitiBike thief rides 38 miles around NYC, charging $80 (NYP)

• Wells Fargo misses interest income estimates as deposit costs bite (YF)

• Citi profit beats on surge in investment banking, services strength (Reuters)

• Trump survives assassination attempt at campaign rally, as it unfolded (AP)

• AI's problem: The missing revenues (Axios)

_{CAPITAL PULSE}

Markets Rundown

Stocks closed higher after banks reported earnings.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Carvana ($CVNA) +5% after BTIG initiated coverage on the used-car platform with a buy.

• (–) Wells Fargo ($WFC) -6% after the firm reported a 9% decline in net interest income.

• (–) Vita Coco ($COCO) -9% because of a downgrade by Piper Sandler.

Private Dealmaking

• Earned Wealth, a wealth startup for doctors, raised $200 million

• Headway, a behavioral therapist network, raised $100 million

• X-Bow Systems, a solid rocket motors maker, raised $70 million

• Regard, a clinical insights platform, raised $61 million

• Planqc, a quantum computing startup, raised $54 million

• Nivoda, a diamond and gemstone marketplace, raised $30 million

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

_{BOOK OF THE DAY}

Extremely Online

For over a decade, Taylor Lorenz has been the authority on internet culture, documenting its far-reaching effects on all corners of our lives. Her reporting is serious yet entertaining and illuminates deep truths about ourselves and the lives we create online. In her debut book, Extremely Online, she reveals how online influence came to upend the world, demolishing traditional barriers and creating whole new sectors of the economy. Lorenz shows this phenomenon to be one of the most disruptive changes in modern capitalism. 

By tracing how the internet has changed what we want and how we go about getting it, Lorenz unearths how social platforms’ power users radically altered our expectations of content, connection, purchasing, and power. In this “deeply reported, behind-the-scenes chronicle of how everyday people built careers and empires from their sheer talent and algorithmic luck” (Sarah Frier, author of No Filter), Lorenz documents how moms who started blogging were among the first to monetize their personal brands online, how bored teens who began posting selfie videos reinvented fame as we know it, and how young creators on TikTok are leveraging opportunities to opt out of the traditional career pipeline. It’s the real social history of the internet.

Emerging seemingly out of nowhere, these shifts in how we use the internet seem easy to dismiss as fads. However, these social and economic transformations have resulted in a digital dynamic so unappreciated and insurgent that it ultimately created new approaches to work, entertainment, fame, and ambition in the 21st century.

“…a groundbreaking social history of the internet, revealing how online influence and the creators who amass it have reshaped our world.”

_{DAILY VISUAL}

Household Net Worth Close to All-time Highs

_{PRESENTED BY SURE DIVIDEND}

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_{DAILY ACUMEN}

Habits

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle understood this centuries ago, and modern science confirms it. Your daily routines shape your life more than your occasional grand gestures.

What small, positive habits could you cultivate today?

Consider the compound effect of habits.

If you improve just 1% each day, you'll be 37 times better in a year.

Start small. Read 10 pages a day. Meditate for 5 minutes. Take a short walk.

These tiny actions, repeated consistently, can transform your life.

Remember, you don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

_{ENLIGHTENMENT}

Short Squeez Picks

• When your new boss is a micromanager

• Airbnb’s CEO’s solution to workplace loneliness

• How to kick unproductive thinking to the curb to good

• These 3 personality traits better predict financial success

• How Rockefeller mastered the art of productive solitude

_{MEME-A-PALOOZA}

Memes of the Day