Opening Bell: 9.24.26

Morgan Stanley Investment Bank Deal List Leaked in Email [Bloomberg]The list contained candidates for initial public offerings, spanning from China to South Korea and India…. The list — which focused mostly on Asia, along with Europe, the Middle East, and Africa — also included private equity and pension funds backing those companies, and projects that were put on hold.The deal list was sent out via email this week to some clients by Mohamed Atmani, Asia-Pacific head of financial sponsors in the investment-banking department, who later sought to retract the messageBarry Diller Withdraws Bid for MGM Resorts [WSJ]Diller’s People Inc. offered in June to buy the remaining stake of the casino company it didn’t already own, in a deal valuing the company at around $12.4 billion. People holds a roughly 27% stake in MGM…. “There are lots of ingredients that go into a proposal of this kind on its way to completion,” Diller said Wednesday. “We didn’t feel the mix was coming together in the way we had hoped and have decided not to pursue taking the company private at this time,” Diller said. He added that the company remains “open to and interested in” a strategic transaction with MGM Resorts. Hedge funds sour on basis trade as Treasury selloff continues [Reuters]Funds locked up in leveraged basis trades are down 20% this year to $1.2 trillion, Morgan ​Stanley estimates…. "The basis position in the market has been declining because the opportunity set is lower," said Meghan Swiber, US rates strategist at Bank ​of America. "The other part of this is that asset manager demand for Treasury futures has also been moderating.”New York Sues Polymarket in Escalating Crackdown on Prediction Markets [WSJ]The crackdown in New York is among the highest-profile legal challenges prediction market operators are facing around the country, with states accusing them of running unlicensed operations that eat into their tax revenue from gambling. Conflicting rulings around the country have set up the fight to head to the Supreme Court. Trump bought and sold shares in Musk's SpaceX in July, financial disclosure shows [Reuters]The latest trades add a new ​financial link between the president and Musk's rocket company at a time ​when the administration is making decisions that could affect the firm's fortunes…. The purchase and sale were among more than 1,000 trades the president ​made in July.Citadel's latest weapon in the hedge fund talent war is a big boomerang hire [BI]Matt Giannini, a well-known recruiter in the hedge fund industry, is returning to Ken Griffin's $76 billion Citadel for his third stint…. Giannini is joining from Walleye Capital….