The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.
2025 ET - UBS takes a history lesson as it analyzes the impact of the Iran conflict on Australian equities. Its conclusion: geopolitics usually doesn't hurt the Australia market. "Tracing back over 15 previous geopolitical shocks that have occurred over the last 50 years, we find that the impact on the Australian equity market is not much," strategist Richard Schellbach says. UBS finds the market goes up 4%, 5% and 11% over the subsequent three, six and 12 months, respectively. "In fact, with the exception of the first Gulf War, geopolitical shocks tend to have had no real lasting negative impact," UBS says. Also, Australia is a net energy exporter due to its large LNG export earnings. So higher energy prices would hurt the consumer via petrol prices, but the overall economy could be in a wealthier position. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)
1955 ET - Investors shouldn't chase Asian stocks that serve as proxies to oil and gas despite rising prices amid the Middle East conflict, says DBS Group Research. Regional oil-and-gas stocks are among the best performing year to date, gaining around 20% even before the conflict erupted, the bank says. DBS expects relatively muted reactions from upstream oil-and-gas stocks, while refining companies' shares could see some downside, given the year-to-date rallies. Increasing oil prices are unlikely to translate into material earnings upgrades, unless disruptions meaningfully impair physical supply for an extended period. "Given that [the] current oil price rise is extremely volatile and uncertain, we would shy away from repricing oil names based on spot prices rather than longer-term prices," DBS adds. (megan.cheah@wsj.com)
1916 ET - Japanese stocks are broadly higher, rebounding from sharp selloffs earlier this week due to fears about a widening Middle East conflict. Kioxia Holdings is up 7.8%, Mitsui & Co. is 6.8% higher and Mizuho Financial Group is up 8.2%. President Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. military engagement in Iran was doing "very well." The dollar is at Y156.91, compared with Y157.57 as of Wednesday's Tokyo stock-market close. Investors are closely watching any developments in Iran and crude oil prices. The Nikkei Stock Average is up 3.7% at 56272.18. (kosaku.narioka@wsj.com; @kosakunarioka)
1914 ET - GenusPlus's purchase of rail service provider Railtrain for an initial A$36.5 million is "another great acquisition," Bell Potter says. The deal solidifies GenusPlus's track record of delivering a highly accretive M&A strategy that complements strong growth from assets it already owns, analyst Joseph House says. An acquisition multiple of 2.75X Ebitda, which assumes an additional payment of A$18.5 million is made as Railtrain achieves performance milestones, looks attractive. Other positives are an enhanced Ebitda margin outlook for GenusPlus and an immediate boost to earnings, Bell Potter says. Its price target lifts 5.6% to A$9.50/share. GenusPlus is down 1.2% at A$8.10 today. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)
1904 ET - Among New Zealand's power generators, Contact Energy and Mercury NZ have the best pipelines of new projects. That's the view of Forsyth Barr after the big four generators added some 9 TWh of potential developments to their pipelines over the past six months. It means their combined pipeline has risen to some 50 TWh. Analyst Andrew Harvey-Green says Contact Energy and Mercury NZ appeal because they are focusing on geothermal projects and wind farms in areas with a low level of wind concentration. "We view solar and lower North Island projects as higher risk given their greater exposure to negatively influencing wholesale electricity prices," Forsyth Barr says. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)
1854 ET - Heavy rain that has forced the suspension of production at Boss Energy's Honeymoon uranium mine is just near-term noise, says Ord Minnett. Boss's more pressing concern is whether it still has a long-term viable business case, analyst Matthew Hope says. "Poor continuity of mineralization outside the restart area has rendered Honeymoon's original wellfield design and scheduling uneconomic," the bank says. That's because many more wells than anticipated would be needed to hit nameplate output of 2.4 million pounds of U3O8 annually. Instead, Boss aims to recover low-grade ore, which can only be economic with lower costs and wider-spaced production wells. "Boss believes this concept could work but this approach has not been implemented anywhere else," Ord Minnett says. It retains a sell call on the stock. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)
1846 ET [Dow Jones]--Broadcom emphasized its long-term strengths during its Wednesday call with investors. The company said demand for AI isn't tapering off as hyperscalers transition from training AI to creating products with it. Instead, they are in need of more computing and networking capacity to support their products. Broadcom has managed to maintain a supply of memory, despite market constraints, through 2028, CEO Hock Tan said. "Our collaboration with these six customers to develop AI XPU is deep, strategic and multi-year," he said. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)
1848 ET - Japanese stocks may rise following sharp selloffs earlier this week driven by fears about a widening Middle East conflict. Nikkei futures are up 3.9% at 56360 on the SGX. President Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. military engagement in Iran was doing "very well." The dollar is at Y157.07, compared with Y157.57 as of Wednesday's Tokyo stock market close. Investors are focusing on any developments in Iran and crude oil prices. The Nikkei Stock Average fell 3.6% to 54245.54 on Wednesday. (kosaku.narioka@wsj.com)
1829 ET - Autosports Group's bulls at Macquarie see the vehicle retailer's expansion into South Australia state as part of a strategy that can more than offset any potential softening in the new car market. Keeping an outperform rating on the stock, the investment bank's analysts tell clients in a note that Autosports expects the acquisition of 15 state dealerships to be immediately accretive to earnings. The analysts see potential margin upside as the dealerships are integrated into the group, and flag Autosports' capacity for further inorganic expansion. Macquarie raises its target price 5.9%, to A$5.19. Shares are down 1.75%, at A$2.81. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)
1814 ET [Dow Jones]--The extent of Endeavour Group's retail turnaround remains uncertain, UBS analysts warn. Keeping a neutral rating on the Australian alcohol and hospitality retailer, they tell clients in a note that recent promotion-led retail sales growth may prove difficult to sustain over the medium term due to structural challenges. They think that Endeavour either needs to reinvest cost savings into further pricing initiatives or offsetting operating deleverage. This would moderate the extent of the turnaround, they add. UBS lifts its target price 6.7% to A$4.00, supported by the strength of its hotels business. Shares are up 3.1% at A$3.96. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)
1759 ET - Cracker Barrel has introduced new menu items and promotions to mount a comeback after last year's failed logo change. The Tennessee-based restaurant chain added a breakfast burger, smoky southern salmon and a new egg scramble and launched a "meals for two" promotion that costs $19.99, said Chief Executive Julie Felss Masino. The company said its average Google rating was 4.28 stars in its second quarter, the highest quarterly score since 2020. "We are at our best more than we have been in a while," Masino said. (chris.kuo@wsj.com)
1755 ET - Uncertainty over what level of promotional activity Accent Group will need to engage in continues to hang over the apparel retailer's near-term outlook, UBS analysts say. They flag this uncertainty--against an economic backdrop that could include further interest-rate rises--as a key risk. On the other hand, they also see upside risk to Accent's second-half guidance and fiscal 2027 outlook from currency moves and improved strategy execution. They lower their target price 4.5% to A$1.05 after trimming EPS forecasts on higher net interest costs, but keep a hold rating on the stock. Shares are at A$1.005 ahead of the open. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 04, 2026 20:25 ET (01:25 GMT)
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