The latest Market Talks covering Technology, Media and Telecom. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1330 ET - Most cryptocurrencies are under pressure ahead of the 8 p.m. ET deadline from President Trump for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But what's trading higher in the crypto space are so-called "privacy coins," or cryptocurrencies that emphasize anonymity for users. Once such coin, Zcash, is up nearly 7% to $269. That makes it nearly 30% in the past month that the coin has appreciated, according to data from FactSet. Monero was also higher earlier today, but has since turned flat, according to data from LSEG. Meanwhile, Bitcoin falls 2.3%, Ethereum is down 3.1%, Solana sheds 3.8%, and XRP drops 3%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
1304 ET - Cybersecurity funding more than doubled to $4.62 billion in 1Q, according to a report from Pinpoint Search Group. Pinpoint says the quarter was one of the strongest since the 2021 to 2022 peak cycle. "The data reflects a market that has moved beyond the correction phase seen in recent years, with capital returning in a more structured manner," Pinpoint says. The report finds that early-stage funding made up the majority of transaction volume, but those rounds represented a smaller share of the capital. Much of the capital raised was concentrated among multiple funding rounds exceeding $100 million, according to the report. (nicholas.miller@wsj.com)
1254 ET - Sovato's new CEO Brian Miller says the remote surgery startup's platform faces scant competition. Sovato's platform provides the digital infrastructure that allows doctors to remotely perform surgery and diagnostics using robots, including secure network links to ensure connectivity as well as an intelligent layer that helps manage clinical workflows and logistics, he says. "As you look at those pieces of the puzzle, there are some things out there in other companies, but I don't know of any other that is digging in," he tells WSJ. He says Sovato has a competitive edge because it is working to deeply integrate into how hospitals operate to ensure its customers get the most value out of the platform. "To date, I haven't seen anything else out there like that," he says. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1235 ET - Sovato's new CEO Brian Miller says the field of remote surgery is at a critical point, on its way toward becoming a more commonplace fixture in hospitals amid the rise of both robotic-assisted procedures and artificial intelligence. "It's hard to put a timeline on it, but progress is being made. The need is there," he tells WSJ. "We'll start to see progress within this decade for sure." There are some regulatory hurdles remaining, he says, though there have been some remote procedures in China and India. "It's not something that hasn't been done," he says. "The technology is there. The need is there, and now it's just bringing it to the market in a really thoughtful way." (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1232 ET - Sovato isn't looking to get acquired, at least not yet, according to the remote surgery startup's new CEO Brian Miller. "We'll see how it develops. It's something that we're not focusing on right now. We're focusing on building that strong infrastructure and platform," Miller tells WSJ. "Once we've demonstrated that we can start to build that into the market, gather that data that really shows the value and the impact that it's having, then we'll see what path it takes." Miller joins Sovato after more than two decades at Intuitive Surgical. Intuitive pioneered and continues to lead the market for robot-assisted surgery, and also participated in Sovato's latest funding round, alongside other investors like Teladoc Health. Both Intuitive and Teladoc have acquired startups founded by Sovato's co-founder Yulun Wang. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1121 ET -- Arm Holdings' move to sell CPU chips underlines the relevance of CPUs to support agentic artificial-intelligence, Morgan Stanley analysts write in a note. Arm's CPU has class-leading performance per watt and is specifically designed to execute agentic AI workflows, the analysts write. They note Arm's projection that each gigawatt of agentic workflow currently takes 30 million CPU cores, with that number expected to rise fourfold by 2030, with multi-agent workloads. The chip is similar to Nvidia's Vera Rubin chip: a power-efficient, mid-market chip with broad appeal. "The idea that the CPU is irrelevant in AI cloud has been scotched, thanks to the rollout of agentic inference," the analysts write. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1116 ET - Arm Holdings' shift to selling semiconductor chips is strategically sound given the increasing popularity of agentic AI, but the commercial ramp up is likely to take some time, Morgan Stanley analysts write in a note. The chip business is likely to be loss making initially, they write, although they project an earnings before interest and taxes margin of more than 30% on sales of $14.4 billion by the end of fiscal 2031. There are other near-term risks: the memory chip shortage weighing on consumer electronic sales, continuing litigation with Qualcomm, and the possibility that Arm's move into chip-making may put it in competition with licensees like Nvidia and Apple. Morgan Stanley raises Arm's price target to $150 but downgrades the stock to equal-weight from overweight. Shares are down 7.1% in late morning trading. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1101 ET -- Uber is expanding its use of Amazon Web Services chips, Amazon says in a blog post. The company says Uber is increasingly running Trip Serving Zones, part of its internal rides and deliveries system, on AWS' Graviton4 chips in an effort to reduce energy consumption and improve resilience during demand spikes. "Moving more Trip Serving workloads to AWS gives us the flexibility to match riders and drivers faster and handle delivery demand spikes without disruption," says Uber's vice president of engineering, Kamran Zargahi. Uber is also experimenting with AWS's Tranium3 chips to train its internal artificial-intelligence models, Amazon says. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1043 ET - Canadian telecom companies are heading into what's expected to be a weaker 1Q as heavy promotional activity earlier in the year weighs on results. CIBC analyst Stephanie Price says that while the post-holiday period is usually quieter, "this 1Q was an anomaly, with wireless pricing becoming aggressive in mid-January and promotions continuing through quarter end." She forecasts consolidated industry revenue and adjusted Ebitda each rising about 1% from a year earlier, driven mostly by recent acquisitions.(adriano.marchese@wsj.com)
0731 ET - Universal Music Group's slower-than-expected growth in music streaming has raised investor concerns, AJ Bell's Dan Coatsworth writes in a note. Despite being the world's largest music company and home to nine of the top 10 global recording artists of 2025, UMG hasn't delivered consistent results since going public, he says. The group remains heavily dependent on Spotify and Apple Music for royalty payments, he writes. "If growth isn't supersonic, then investors won't be prepared to pay as much for the shares - hence the de-rating we've seen since last summer." Shares are up 10.6% after Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital bid for the company.(najat.kantouar@wsj.com)
0623 ET - Pershing Square's bid for Universal Music Group is likely to come under careful investor scrutiny, ING analysts David Vagman and Maxime Stranart write in a note. Bill Ackman's investment firm has made a non-binding offer valuing the record label at more than $63.48 billion. While the bid might fail, it raises valid questions and makes the case for significant changes, they add. However, it risks prompting management to leave, as it challenges their plan to expand in emerging markets through about 1 billion euros a year in M&A over the next few years--a strategy the offer appears to directly rebut--they say. Universal Music shares are up 11.1%. (najat.kantouar@wsj.com)
0556 ET - STMicroelectronics shares benefit from market exuberance around Samsung Electronics' first-quarter earnings. Samsung recorded an eightfold increase in profits on growing demand for artificial-intelligence chips, a positive signal for ST, given the close relationship between the two companies. Samsung is a key manufacturer of ST chips, while the pair co-develop FD-SOI, a type of high-end chip technology. Moreover, soaring demand for memory chips noted by Samsung also bodes well for ST, though the pair operate in different parts of the market. ST shares are up 6.5%, with other European semiconductor stocks also benefiting. Suss Microtec climbs 4.6%, while Infineon gains 2.1%. (josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 07, 2026 16:50 ET (20:50 GMT)
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