The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.
1725 ET - Boeing confirms the American delegation to Beijing this week yielded a commitment for 200 new plane orders, with future bookings to be determined. "We had a very successful trip to China and accomplished our major goal of reopening the China market to orders for Boeing aircraft," the U.S. plane maker said in a statement. "This included an initial commitment for 200 aircraft and we expect further commitments will follow after this initial tranche." The promise for 200 jets fell short of the more than 500 firm orders that Wall Street analysts had been predicting, sending Boeing shares lower this week. (andrew.fitzgerald@wsj.com; @drewfitzgerald)
1715 ET - Canada's big energy producers issue a lukewarm response about a deal between PM Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith over an industrial carbon tax. The Oil Sands Alliance is the group behind a carbon-capture and storage project known as Pathways. With the carbon tax out of the way, Carney says construction of Pathways is necessary before he will back the new crude-oil pipeline that Smith wants. The alliance says any industrial carbon levy represents an uncompetitive cost for the sector, adding no major oil-producing state has such a tax. The groups suggests it won't proceed with Pathways unless "the necessary regulatory and fiscal terms are in place." Talks between Ottawa, Alberta and the alliance will likely hinge on how much financing the two levels of government are willing to offer. (paul.vieira@wsj.com, @paulvieira)
1708 ET - The booming secondary market for private equity-fund stakes is becoming increasingly concentrated, according to Capital Dynamics, a secondary fund manager. The value of secondary transactions worldwide totaled $226 billion last year, up 41% from 2024, with the market's 10 largest investors accounting for half of last year's total, the firm says. "As markets scale, capital concentrates," Managing Director Mauro Pfister says in a market note. "The buyer universe has expanded, deal sizes have grown, and pricing at the top of the market has tightened accordingly." Pfister notes that only 2% of more than $13 trillion in assets held in private-equity funds change hands annually in the secondary market, giving it plenty of room to grow further. "Looking ahead, structural tailwinds remain powerful," he says. (luis.garcia@wsj.com; @lhvgarcia)
1608 ET - U.S. stocks drop to end a choppy week of tradingas worries about a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz grow, with lack of progress coming out of President Trump's visit to China. U.S. crude oil prices climb 10% for the week, while Treasury yields post their biggest rise in over a year. Energy stocks are the only sector to rise for the day while materials fall the most. The S&P 500 rises for a seventh straight week, while the Nasdaq and Dow Industrials post small gains. DJIA falls 537 points, or 1.1%, to 49526, the S&P 500 loses 1.2% to 7408 and the Nasdaq drops 1.5% to 26225. (patrick.sullivan@wsj.com)
1432 ET - Bird Construction's long-term partnership win with Bell Canada has BMO Capital Markets changing its mind about the Canadian general contracting company. One day after downgrading shares to market perform, analyst John Gibson raises his rating back to outperform. On a Wednesday call with analysts, Bell management noted that its AI compute infrastructure plan "is targeting 800 MW of projects across Canada, which should provide solid long-term tailwinds for the company over the next several years," Gibson says. He had only downgraded shares the day before. Gibson's estimates now incorporate mid-teens revenue growth in 2026, followed by an approximate 25% increase in 2027, which is now at the guidance midpoint from the low end prior. As well as the re-upgrade, BMO raises the target price C$5 to C$60. Bird Construction surges 13% to C$57.79. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)
1429 ET - DraftKings says it has an opportunity for margin expansion if prediction markets take up a bigger share of its business. Chief Financial Officer Alan Ellingson tells analysts at a conference that prediction markets are higher margin than sports betting because they don't have the same overhead costs, as they are not taxed the same way. However, Ellingson cautions analysts that the company is still collecting data on predictions' return on investment, which could determine how much of the business is predictions-related. "We're going to have to follow the data for the next few months just to see what size that could look like," he says. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)
1401 ET - DraftKings is racing to add more events that users can trade on to drive engagement with its new predictions platform, Chief Financial Officer Alan Ellingson says at a conference. "The more markets you can create and you can price for them, the more they're willing to engage," Ellingson says. For now, DraftKings' prediction markets are limited as it ramps up the platform, so trades are limited to main lines in bigger markets, he says. The online sports betting platform is trying to change that though. It recently launched combo trades on DraftKings Predictions, which is the equivalent of a betting parlay where multiple events have to occur to win money. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)
1328 ET - The number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. rose by five this week to 415, oil services company Baker Hughes reports. It was the highest oil rig count since November, and up by eight since the start of the U.S.-Iran conflict that closed the Strait of Hormuz and sent oil prices into triple digits. Still, producers have proceeded with caution. With $100 a barrel oil it's profitable to drill anywhere, but producers know that isn't going to last forever, says Gary Cunningham of Tradition Energy. "People know that eventually there will be some type of a resolution with Iran and some type of reopening of the strait." Rigs directed at natural gas slipped by one this week to 128. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)
1241 ET - At both Walmart and Target, weekday visits rose sharply during 1Q, Placer.ai data shows. "Weekday traffic growth across both brands highlights the growing importance of routine, need-based shopping trips in driving visits," a recent report from the location-analytics firm reads. "This pattern signals that essential retail demand is currently outweighing discretionary behavior, shaping near-term performance." While weekday visits rose sharply in 1Q, weekend visits remained essentially flat year-over-year. For Target, this stabilization in weekend visits is notable, as prior declines had weighed on overall performance. "This matters because weekends tend to capture more discretionary browsing and higher-margin categories that are central to Target's model," Placer.ai says in the report.(connor.hart@wsj.com)
1226 ET - Target entered the year on shaky footing, but the retailer's turnaround seems to have gained some real traction over the past few months. January appears to be "the beginning of a notable shift, with both overall visits and same-store visits stabilizing," a report from location-analytics firm Placer.ai says. "The months that followed brought a meaningful traffic rebound, indicating that February's positive sales trends may have continued, and new CEO Michael Fiddelke's turnaround strategy may be bearing fruit." These improvements are particularly noteworthy, Placer.ai says, given ongoing weakness in consumer sentiment, as well as the recent impact of energy price hikes, Placer.ai says. Target is scheduled to report 1Q results on May 20th. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
1127 ET - Bird Construction's growth trajectory is showing promise, most recently proven by its newly appointed role on the Bell AI Fabric 300 megawatt data center in Saskatchewan. Raymond James analyst Frederic Bastien says the project "further boosts its record backlog and accelerates demand across its buildings, industrial and infrastructure segments." This growth, which Bastien expects to accelerate through 2027, prompts the analyst to raise the stock price target to C$60 from C$54. The analyst maintained its outperform 2 rating. "BDT continues to see a barrage of positive demand signals, suggesting its record C$5.4 billion backlog may not remain the high-water mark for long," he adds. Shares are up 10% to C$56.38. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)
1010 ET - Calian Group joins a growing list of Canadian companies seeing momentum from rising defense spending, a theme also visible across peers with defense exposure such as Bombardier, Kraken Robotics and MDA Space. CIBC's Stephanie Price notes that the services-and-technology company's 2Q revenue topped consensus estimates by 6%, with adjusted Ebitda coming in 26% above expectations. Bookings are up 29% year over year, and Price says Calian is seeing good growth in Europe as it focuses on leveraging long-term customer relationships and bidding on larger opportunities as a prime vendor. "We continue to see Calian as well positioned to benefit from defense spending tailwind," Price says. Shares are trading down 2.5% at C$80.16, but up 44% year to date. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 15, 2026 17:25 ET (21:25 GMT)
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