The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.
1909 ET - The Middle East conflict and crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has made Qatar LNG assets less valuable in the eyes of investors. That could trigger M&A among liquefied natural gas producers, making Woodside Energy a viable target, Macquarie says. It notes that U.S. majors trade on 40%-50% higher multiples than European or Australian energy companies. So, it contends that this would enable U.S. majors to make all-stock offers to unlock value unavailable in Woodside's current structure. Macquarie's price target on Woodside rises 9%, to A$32.80/share, after incorporating a 20% probability of an M&A approach over the next 12 months. It also upgrades Woodside to "outperform," from "neutral." Woodside ended Thursday at A$29.49. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)
1852 ET - Wealth-management platform provider Netwealth's bull at Jefferies was encouraged by its 4Q update. Funds under administration rose by 19%. "Net Inflows of A$3.2 billion were impacted by a small number of partial withdrawals from UHNW accounts, which is not entirely uncommon, with payments to beneficiaries, and the purchase of off-platform assets," analyst Simon Fitzgerald says. The most interesting news likely relates to 75 new financial intermediary relationships, he says. "In our view, this sheds some light on the group's inflow target of A$18 billion-A$20 billion for FY27," Jefferies says. It retains a "buy" call and A$30.25/share price target on Netwealth, which ended Thursday at A$23.50. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)
Citi had expected wealth manager AMP's China Partnerships business to boost earnings by more than the market expected, but it was still surprised by the size of its contribution in 1H. AMP has guided to a 1H underlying net profit of A$170 million-A$180 million. That represents a 25% beat to consensus hopes. AMP said the 1H contribution from China Partnerships, which includes China Life Pension Company, would be some A$56 million. "Looking forward, while some of AMP's earnings contributors look set to be a bit volatile, solid assets under management growth from CLPC seems to imply profits from Partnerships will be sustainably higher going forward," analyst Nigel Pittaway says. Citi raises its FY26 and FY27 EPS forecasts by 13% and 7%, respectively. It retains a buy call on AMP's stock. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)
1827 ET - Netflix executives emphasize again that they see themselves as builders and not buyers, taking a selective approach to any deals. "That remains the case today," Co-CEO Ted Sarandos says during a call with analysts, acknowledging that others will speculate about their acquisition intentions. "But our track record is clear that we have a very high bar to do any big M&A." Netflix was exploring a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming service, marking a departure in strategy for the company, but lost out on the acquisition earlier this year. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
Netflix executives field several questions around the streaming platform's engagement metrics during its latest earnings call. The executives reiterate that engagement remains healthy, and emphasize that viewing hours don't necessarily have a linear relationship with financial metrics. Some content offerings, like live events, drive acquisition but don't yield as many raw viewers, while others, like kids and family TV, take up the same amount of content spending but drive more raw viewers, Co-CEO Greg Peters says during a call with analysts. "Ultimately, it's combined quality, variety, and quantity of engagement that translates into satisfaction and value for members, and that drives the strong business outcomes we see right now," Peters says. "We see increased willingness to pay strong advertiser demand, and those ultimately drive the top-level metrics of our business revenue and operating profit, which are really the ultimate signs of our health."
(kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1803 ET - Netflix expects content spending to pick up a bit this year, guiding for content expense growth of 10% compared with an average of 8% over the last five years. Still, that's below the company's 14% average over the past decade, Co-CEO Ted Sarandos says during a call with analysts. "We're really disciplined investors, so there isn't some hyper-acceleration of content investment," Sarandos says. "We grow the content spend slower than revenue while we're continuing to invest in a huge addressable market." (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1756 ET - Alcoa's 2Q earnings came in under expectations due to lower-than-anticipated aluminum price realization toward the end of the quarter, CFO Molly Beerman says on a call with analysts. "Our annual pricing sensitivities, which are based on a 15 day lag for simplicity, do not account for the steep changes near quarter end," Beerman says. "Importantly, this does not change the underlying strength of the business or the quality of our operational execution, we remain focused on providing transparent insight, especially in periods of heightened price volatility." Alcoa reported 2Q revenue of $3.97 billion, below consensus estimates of $3.99 billion according to FactSet. Shares are off 3.2% after-hours. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1614 ET - Netflix says it's leveraging artificial intelligence to offer a more personalized and interactive product, part of its sweeping strategy to use the technology in every part of its service and business. It's using large language models to better understand member preferences, and improve the way it helps them find films and series they will like. Netflix is also working to improve its search feature with new voice search functionality and AI-powered natural language search.(kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1613 ET - Netflix narrowed its full-year revenue guidance, disappointing investors' hopes for a bump. The streaming company now forecasts revenue between $51 billion and $51.4 billion for the year, compared with a previous range of $50.7 billion to $51.7 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet project revenue of $51.38 billion, which is above the midpoint of Netflix's range. Prior to the results, BofA Securities analysts said Netflix could soothe the market's worries over slowing engagement, among other factors, by raising its guidance. "Given the recent pullback in shares, we believe investor sentiment remains muted and a beat and raise quarter could go a long way in assuaging several of these investor concerns," the analysts said in a note earlier this week. Netflix shares fall 5.9% to $69.99 in late trading. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1610 ET - Netflix will disclose certain engagement trends less frequently, offering a narrower view into how many hours customers are spending on the streaming platform. Netflix says it will begin publishing its "What We Watched" report on an annual basis in the first quarter starting next year, compared with a current bi-annual cadence. By separating the report from its earnings results, the company says it aims to keep the focus on its primary financial metrics. Netflix still plans to report industry-leading title-by-title and total view hours data, it says. "Engagement is important to our business," the company says, but "engagement is not just the quantity of view hours, but also refers to the quality and variety of our offering." (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1605 ET - Netflix says its non-english content again drove more than a third of all viewing hours in the first half, contributing to the more than 97 billion hours watched. The company points to standout titles from Korea, Japan, Spain and India. Korean drama "Teach You a Lesson" has garnered 55 million views and is on track to become Netflix's second-most viewed Korean show globally, while Spain's "Berlin and The Lady with an Ermine" has gotten 28 million views, the company says. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1604 ET - Netflix says its various content types affect its business differently, with some driving acquisition while others help with retention. For example, this year it expects live programming to take up only about 1% of view hours, though it is driving people to the platform. Live programming has accounted for six of Netflix's top 10 new member sign-up days over the last five years, the company says, even though it's only been doing live events since 2023. Live programming takes up just over 5% of Netflix's content spend.(kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 16, 2026 19:09 ET (23:09 GMT)
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