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Luke Kawa & Jon Keegan2/23/26

OpenAI teams up with consulting giants to boost its enterprise business

OpenAI has a new sales force to market its enterprise AI tools to big corporations.

In a press release, the ChatGPT maker unveiled a number of “Frontier Alliances” with consulting companies Accenture, Boston Consulting Group, Capgemini, and McKinsey.

“Frontier” refers to OpenAI’s platform introduced earlier this month that “helps enterprises build, deploy, and manage AI agents that can do real work.”

These alliances come amid an industrywide love affair with Anthropic’s Claude Code, which has juiced the startup’s revenue projections.

Companies may want to introduce AI tools, but do not have a good strategy around how to get started. That’s where consulting companies come in.

For companies in that situation, going to one of these consulting firms for AI-related help might now be like going to a financial adviser who gets an extra commission from having you invest in a specific fund offered by the investment arm of their firm.

The consulting industry was a forerunner to software in terms of facing AI disruption and, in the case of Accenture, seeing its share price slump as the market rallied. Employment in the sector peaked right around the time that ChatGPT was launched.

For Accenture, this marks the latest in a series of AI collaborations and builds off its prior partnership with OpenAI. The positive spin on this strategy from Accenture's perspective is that management is accepting that the consulting business will be fundamentally transformed by AI, and wants to be among the first movers in adapting to survive that transition. Uncharitably, as we’ve said, this is “training your replacements.”

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Jet fuel refining margins are surging to 20-year highs amid Iran war, threatening airlines

According to a Deutsche Bank note on Friday, airlines haven’t seen this phenomenon since the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Airlines Face Rapidly Rising Fuel Costs

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Matt Phillips3h

The slow-motion private credit crunch continues

You may have missed it, what with the Iran war, the price of oil spiking, or the ongoing questions about the durability — and future profitability — of the AI capex boom.

But there are clear signs of malaise in private credit markets — the massive corporate bond and loan markets that typically burble away quietly in the background while the stock markets garner the headlines.

The Financial Times reported on Friday:

“BlackRock has limited withdrawals from one of its flagship private credit funds following a surge in redemption requests, as investors retreat from the asset class and questions about credit quality intensify...

The decision to cap withdrawals at 5 per cent will be closely scrutinised by the industry as outflows climb across semi-liquid private credit funds. The vehicles have drawn in hundreds of billions of dollars from retail investors and wealthy individuals who were enticed by the high returns on offer but have started to bolt at the first signs of stress.”

That news follows an unsettling recent pattern of private credit firms telling investors they cannot have their money back on demand, most notably Blue Owl last month, which also limited redemptions.

Normally the goings-on of the credit markets are of little interest to stock jockeys. But the concerns about credit have started to bleed into the stock market, too.

Of the S&P 500’s 11 industry groups — known as sectors — the financial sector (Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund) is by far the year’s worst performer, down more than 9% in 2026, with firms with links to private credit such as Ares Management, Blackstone, KKR & Co., and Apollo Global Management some of the worst performers. They’re all down more than 20% since the start of the year.

If investors were looking for another thing to worry about, this would likely be a good one to add to the list.

BlackRock limits redemptions at private credit fund as outflows swell

But there are clear signs of malaise in private credit markets — the massive corporate bond and loan markets that typically burble away quietly in the background while the stock markets garner the headlines.

The Financial Times reported on Friday:

“BlackRock has limited withdrawals from one of its flagship private credit funds following a surge in redemption requests, as investors retreat from the asset class and questions about credit quality intensify...

The decision to cap withdrawals at 5 per cent will be closely scrutinised by the industry as outflows climb across semi-liquid private credit funds. The vehicles have drawn in hundreds of billions of dollars from retail investors and wealthy individuals who were enticed by the high returns on offer but have started to bolt at the first signs of stress.”

That news follows an unsettling recent pattern of private credit firms telling investors they cannot have their money back on demand, most notably Blue Owl last month, which also limited redemptions.

Normally the goings-on of the credit markets are of little interest to stock jockeys. But the concerns about credit have started to bleed into the stock market, too.

Of the S&P 500’s 11 industry groups — known as sectors — the financial sector (Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund) is by far the year’s worst performer, down more than 9% in 2026, with firms with links to private credit such as Ares Management, Blackstone, KKR & Co., and Apollo Global Management some of the worst performers. They’re all down more than 20% since the start of the year.

If investors were looking for another thing to worry about, this would likely be a good one to add to the list.

US employment unexpectedly contracts in February, unemployment rate rises to 4.4%

Event contracts indicate a rate cut in June is a now a very live possibility.

Americans line up for job fair.

LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven

Qatar energy minister warns of potential oil spike to $150 within weeks

“Most of the folks who appreciate just how bullish the US-Israel-Iran war is for oil markets think it’s SO WILDLY BULLISH that they can’t imagine this lasting much longer,” wrote Rory Johnston, founder of Commodity Context.

Hyunsoo Rim, Luke Kawa4h

US gas prices jump to highest level of Trump’s time in office

Prices are up about $0.34 per gallon since the conflict started.

BP Fuel Pump

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