Fed Rate Creeps Up

Fed funds rate seen edging higher within range as costs rise.

Author

Ankit Sinha
September 23, 2025

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Your Daily Dose of Market & Career Clarity

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🎯 In this issue:

  • Banana Bits: Finance headlines that actually matter

  • Market Summary: Razor-thin losses

  • What’s Ripe / Rotten: The tastiest and most disgusting stocks 

  • Technical Trip: Interview Q&A from Blackrock

  • Deal Dispatch: M&A, IPOs, and other transactions 

  • The Daily Poll: See how you stack up

Market Snapshot

📉 Banana Bits

Market Recap

China Found the New Path 

President Xi Jinping’s strategy on exports proved successful after China posted a record $1.2 trillion trade surplus. 

With the curtailment of the U.S., it shows that China is not backing down from the U.S.’s pressures. Indian purchases hit an all-time high in August, shipments to Africa are on track for an annual record, and sales to Southeast Asia have exceeded their pandemic-era peak.

Not just that, Chinese equities have been experiencing some momentum in recent months. With a weaker dollar, it further raises the appeal of a region that has benefited from cheaper valuations and a momentous shift away from American assets. 

So far this year, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index has climbed 22%, beating the S&P 500 Index by around eight percentage points and setting a record for the biggest annual outperformance since 2017.

What's Ripe

Metsera Inc (MTSR) 60.1%

  • MTSR price surged 60% after the report that Pfizer is nearing a $7.3B takeover of the weight-loss drug maker.

  • The deal would value Metsera at $47.50 per share in cash, plus an additional $22.50 contingent on performance milestones, representing a 42% premium.

ODP Corp. (ODP) 33.0%

  • The office supplies retailer said it will be taken private by an affiliate of Atlas Holdings in a $1B deal at $28/share in cash, representing a 34% premium.

  • Upon completion, ODP will be delisted from Nasdaq. The transaction is expected to close by year-end 2025.

What's Rotten

Quantum Computing (QUBT) 13.2%

  • Shares plunged after the company announced an oversubscribed private placement of 26.9M shares, raising $500M in gross proceeds. 

  • QUBT plans to use the funds for commercialization, acquisitions, and expansion efforts.

Kenvue (KVUE) 7.5%

  • KVUE dropped 7% after Trump announced a potential link between Tylenol (acetaminophen) use during pregnancy and autism.

  • Tylenol is a core product of Kenvue’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit.

🧠 Technical Trip

Q&A with Jane Street

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🦈 Deal Dispatch

M&A, IPOs, And Other Notable Transactions

📊The Daily Poll

Strongest growth market for China?

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Previous Poll:

$100K H-1B visa fee is…

Too high: 49.3% // Fair: 10.7% // Political: 26.5% // Temporary: 13.5%

Student Success

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Banana Brain Teaser

Previous

A researcher plans to identify each participant in a certain medical experiment with a code consisting of either a single letter or a pair of distinct letters written in alphabetical order. What is the least number of letters that can be used if there are 12 participants, and each participant is to receive a different code?

Answer: 5

Today

If 3 < x <100, for how many values of x is x/3 the square of a prime number?

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The market does not beat them; they beat themselves.

Jesse Livermore

How Would You Rate Today's Peel?

Happy Investing,
Chris, Vyom, Ankit, Mitchell, Colin, & Patrick