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.
0814 GMT - China's exports are likely to continue to grow this year, according to Goldman Sachs economists in a research note. Trade growth was "exceptionally strong" in 1Q, GS points out. The bank raises its estimates for 2026 total goods export volume growth to 7.2% from 5.3%, based on strong 1Q data. Still, the country faces risks such as continued trade disruptions in the Middle East and lower demand from low-income oil-importing trading partners, which may drag trade growth in coming quarters, GS says. (tracy.qu@wsj.com)
0811 GMT - Delivery Hero is able to execute on its growth ambitions, Berenberg's Wolfgang Specht writes in a note. The German food-delivery company had a stronger-than-expected start to the year, he says. Additionally, the company's most important operational challenges seem to be under control again, he adds. Delivery Hero can achieve its growth plans, with expectations of outpacing the delivery market as younger generations increasingly value the speed and convenience of its offerings, he says. (najat.kantouar@wsj.com)
0743 GMT - Xiaomi's 1Q results are likely to be weighed by smartphone and EV headwinds, Citi analysts say in a research note. Xiaomi's 1Q revenue likely fell 13% on year to 97 billion yuan, with smartphone sales likely down 14%, the analysts say. Xiaomi shipped 33.8 million units of smartphone globally in 1Q, down 19%, according to IDC data. Xiaomi lost its position from the top 5 vendors in China, with analysts noting Xiaomi strategically lowered its low-margin smartphone shipment to protect profitability amid higher memory prices. Citi lowers its Xiaomi 2026-2028 smartphone shipments to 135 million, 140 million and 145 million, respectively. Shares last ended at HK$29.02. (sherry.qin@wsj.com)
0703 GMT - Pearson delivered positive results for the first quarter, Citi analysts write in a note. The FTSE 100 education company maintained its full-year guidance after reporting higher underlying group sales. Management has consistently delivered in line with expectations, which supports confidence that 2026 consensus will remain unchanged, they say. Additionally, the company continues to execute well on its strategic priorities, highlighted by its enterprise partnership with Salesforce, they add. Shares closed at 10.82 pounds on Thursday. (najat.kantouar@wsj.com)
2242 GMT - Apple's incoming CEO John Ternus made a much-anticipated appearance during the iPhone-maker's earnings call. Ternus, who starts in the new role in September, says he plans to continue CEO Tim Cook's deep thoughtfulness, deliberateness and discipline when it comes to financial decision making. The hardware executive also says he's optimistic about where Apple is heading, noting the company has an incredible roadmap ahead. "While you're not going to get me to talk about the details of that roadmap, suffice it to say, this is the most exciting time in my 25 year career at Apple to be building products and services," Ternus says. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
2236 GMT [Dow Jones]--Apple CEO Tim Cook says it could take several months to balance supply and demand for the company's Mac Mini and Mac Studio. "Both of these are amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools," Cook says during a call with analysts. "The customer recognition of that is happening faster than what we had predicted." Demand for the two products was higher than expected in the latest quarter as a result, Cook says. The Mac Mini and Mac Studio, which have no screens, have surged in popularity with the rise of private AI agents like OpenClaw. AI power users see them as a cost-effective way to run local large language models. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
2211 GMT - Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company is seeing overwhelming demand for the MacBook Neo, its new, entry-level laptop that's priced lower than some analysts had expected. "The customer response to Mac Neo has just been off the charts," Cook says during a call with analysts. Cook says the company was bullish on the product before announcing it, but underestimated the level of enthusiasm it would generate, leading to supply constraints. The model helped Apple set a second-quarter record for customers new to its MacBook product line, Cook says. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1857 GMT - The contours of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's plans for delivering superintelligence to billions of people are beginning to take shape, Mizuho analysts say in a note. "We are encouraged to hear of 'large increases in Meta AI use' since the Muse Spark launch and got a bit more on Zuckerberg's plan. It remains vague, but we can see his agentic consumer focused vision start to take shape," they say. "The improving confidence from management was palpable." Meta is off 8%, but if investors also begin to feel more confident about Zuckerberg's thesis, that could drive the multiple upwards, the analysts say. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1855 GMT - Microsoft's new agreement with OpenAI seems like a win-win situation, according to Mizuho in a note. The new agreement frees OpenAI to sell AI tools outside of Microsoft's Azure cloud-computing service and caps how much revenue it must share with Microsoft through 2030. Microsoft says the new partnership will simplify the business alliance and create more predictability long-term. "On balance, we view the amendment as very fair for MSFT, as it does remove exclusivity of models and products, but MSFT maintains access to OpenAI IP while no longer sharing revenue with OpenAI," the analysts say. "In addition, MSFT continues to benefit from OpenAI's broader success through its Azure footprint, the continued revenue share from OpenAI, and its ownership of OpenAI equity." (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1838 GMT - Meta Platforms' 1Q print gave Benchmark analysts Mark Zgutowicz and Alex Lavigne more confidence on artificial-intelligence efforts improving the core ads business, but did not improve their view of how the company's growing capital expenditures would drive a return flywheel. The company's signposts are still qualitative, it appears to be underestimating its compute needs, and it's not optimized to a specific cash flow level, they write, after Meta lifted its capital expenditures outlook for the year. "We continue to press the question: what's the incremental yield from each marginal dollar of compute spend?" they write. "Net-net, the call reaffirmed the central capital-intensity debate and the core of our Hold rating." Shares slide 7.7%. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1818 GMT - Microsoft looks to be shifting decisively toward usage-based pricing for its artificial-intelligence products, UBS analysts say in a note. "Microsoft and its software peers have been marching towards a usage-based pricing model for well over a year now, but this earnings call might be remembered as the moment when this pace suddenly shifted," they say. Though it's clear that AI coding agents are driving token consumption, they say, the picture is less clear for non-coding use cases, and the timeline for the pricing shift becoming accretive is uncertain. "The key questions are whether the AI features being charged for on a consumption basis are truly value-add enough to drive usage and whether large enterprise will be willing to absorb higher token costs without cutting even further into their non-AI software budgets." (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1800 GMT - Major cryptocurrencies are rebounding from weakness seen Wednesday, with the market digesting comments made by outgoing Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell that he would stay on as a Fed governor after his chairmanship ends. On one level, macro-level economics continue to get messier as the standoff between the U.S. and Iran plays out--a factor pressuring cryptocurrency prices as these assets are typically supported by risk-on sentiment. But on the other hand, the cryptocurrency market is seeing notable advancements while this pressure lays on prices, says CoinMarketCap in a note. "Beneath the pressure, the infrastructure around crypto keeps expanding," says the firm. "The build-out is not stopping." Bitcoin is up 0.8% to $76,250, while ethereum climbs 0.8% to $2,257. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 01, 2026 04:20 ET (08:20 GMT)
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