Silver banana goes to…

Your Daily Dose of Market & Career Clarity

📬 Delivered to 150,000+ ambitious readers

🎯 In this issue:

• Banana Bits: Finance headlines that actually matter

• Market Summary: Markets drop as Fed signals dampen cut hopes

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

• Technical Trip: Unexpected Interview Question with DE Shaw & Co

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

• The Daily Poll: See how you stack up

Market Snapshot

📉 Banana Bits

• Citi says demand in China is booming as the bank ramps up expansion.

• Under Armour has split with Steph Curry, leaving him shopping for a new partner.

• Jobless claims slipped last week, pointing to a steady labor market.

• Trump pardoned UK billionaire and former Spurs owner Joe Lewis.

• Apple’s 15% WeChat deal could jolt China’s $4.5B mini-game ecosystem.

• Michael Burry has de-registered his hedge fund, Scion Asset Management.

Market Recap

A Deserve Drop?

It seems that not just the policymakers who were flying blind due to the government shutdown, but also the investors. 

Wall Street has been pumping up the market ever since the news broke out that the shutdown had reached a deal. However, Thursday trading was different. Wall Street was worried that the probability of the Fed reducing interest rates again in December was dwindling, making it the most likely trigger for the selloff. 

Swaps traders are pricing in about a 50% chance of a cut, down from 72% a week ago, as Fed officials have failed to signal conviction for such a move in recent remarks.

What's Ripe

Sealed Air Corp. (SEE) 16.9%

• SEE stock jumped 17%. Buyout firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice is in talks to take the packaging company private.

• While the report is unconfirmed, investors have been pushing the company to “take drastic action” regarding its product portfolio.

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) 4.6%

• CSCO rose 4.6% after the networking company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue in its fiscal first quarter. 

• Cisco also provided a strong financial forecast. For the current quarter, it expects earnings of $1.01 to $1.03 per share, above analysts’ estimates.

What's Rotten

Walt Disney Co. (DIS) 7.8%

• DIS shares tumbled 7.8% after the entertainment giant posted fiscal fourth-quarter results. 

• Revenue was roughly flat year over year, while operating income declined 5% to $3.48 billion.

Tesla Inc. (TSLA) 6.6%

• TSLA fell 6.6%. The stock has fallen three times and risen just once since the company’s annual meeting on Nov. 6, where CEO Elon Musk learned that shareholders voted in favor of his trillion-dollar 2025 pay award by a margin of roughly three-to-one.

🧠 Technical Trip

Interview Q&A from DE Shaw & Co

👉 Want 1-on-1 recruiting help from DE Shaw & Co bankers & 2,000+ top mentors? Apply to WSO Academy

📚 Lesson from the Library

🎥 LBO Dynamics: How Deals Actually Move

Learn the levers that move an LBO — leverage, cash flows, returns math, and deal sensitivity.

2025 IB Working Conditions Survey

We Want Your Input!

Are you in investment banking? Take 2 minutes to share your experience on hours, compensation, and work-life balance in our 2025 survey. Your insights help shed light on real working conditions across the industry.

All responses are 100% anonymous, so you can be honest about your experience.

📝 Click here to participate and join others who are turning their experience into a voice for change in IB.

🦈 Deal Dispatch

M&A, IPOs, And Other Notable Transactions

• Firmus, backed by Nvidia, raised $327M to grow its AI data centers.

• Pine Labs, backed by PayPal, is set to list after its $440M India IPO.

• Berkshire raised ¥210.1B through a multi-tranche bond sale.

• IFM is in talks to raise $2B in debt for a Green Group acquisition.

• India’s biggest asset manager is eyeing a $1.2B IPO in 2026.

📊The Daily Poll

Previous Poll:

Trump signed the funding bill and ended the shutdown. How’s that landing for you?

Finally, some normalcy: 41.2% // Temporary band-aid: 45.1% // Markets needed this: 13.7%

Student Success Corner

👉 Are you next? Find out with WSO Academy

Banana Brain Teaser

Previous

If m is the average of the first 10 positive multiples of 5 and if M is the median of the first 10 positive multiples of 5, what is the value of M - m?

Answer: 0

Today

At a certain school, the ratio of the number of second graders to the number of fourth graders is 8:5, and the ratio of the number of first graders to the number of second graders is 3:4. If the ratio of the number of third graders to the number of fourth graders is 3:2, what is the ratio of the number of first graders to the number of thrid graders?

How Would You Rate Today's Peel?

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

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