The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.
1045 ET - European natural-gas prices plunge 7% in afternoon trading, with the benchmark Dutch TTF at 51.99 euros a megawatt-hour as renewed diplomatic efforts to end the Iran war lift sentiment. Fundamentals, however, remain supportive. A prolonged heatwave across Europe is lifting cooling demand at a time when gas storage is around 57% full, well below last year's level. "In Hungary, the Paks nuclear power plant was taken offline over the weekend after cooling-water levels from the Danube River fell to their lowest in more than four decades," says Antonia Syn from Rystad Energy. "The plant normally supplies around 40% of the country's electricity." At the same time, Norwegian pipeline maintenance is curbing supply, while a drone strike on Egypt's Damietta LNG import terminal has reduced the country's regasification capacity, tightening global LNG market conditions. (giulia.petroni@wsj.com)
1011 ET - Bitcoin has been rangebound in recent weeks, which has been an opportunity for big buyers -- otherwise known as "whales." These whales are seen as accumulating bitcoin at these price levels, says analysts with CryptoQuant in a note. "Bitcoin whale holdings (excluding exchanges and mining pools) have risen through 2026 to roughly 3.06M BTC, with whales adding aggressively as price dipped below $60K in June," says the firm. CoinMarketCap reports that the Crypto Fear and Greed index remains below the threshold between "fear" and "neutral", at a score of 38 out of 100. Bitcoin is down 0.5% to $64,012. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
0959 ET - HSBC Holdings' cost guidance restricts forecast upgrades, with its wealth-management offering crucial to the market's view on the bank, UBS analysts say. The wealth segment delivered for the London-based bank in the second quarter, with wealth non-interest income up 21% and 8% annualized net new money growth, UBS writes. However, banking net interest income is the larger driver of revenue, the analysts add. The signal that HSBC might look to invest in revenue opportunities in 2027 is also key, UBS says. As a result, profit margins might be tighter than UBS expected. UBS leaves its earnings per share estimates for 2026 through 2028 largely unchanged as higher income is offset by additional costs. HSBC shares are down 4.6% in London. (michael.hennessey@wsj.com)
0953 ET - Uber plans to spend about $10 billion over the coming years to support its autonomous vehicle ambitions. "AVs represent a very important future for mobility," CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says on CNBC. "We are partnering with the entire ecosystem," he adds. Uber has partnerships with over 30 AV companies spanning software, technology and vehicles. The company will operate AVs in 15 markets across the world by the end of the year and continues to invest in the space, Khosrowshahi says. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
0949 ET - Consumer spending remains healthy, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says on CNBC. "We're not seeing any signs of trade down, we're not seeing smaller basket sizes," he says. "Consumers remain generous in their tipping, for example. Sometimes if someone is feeling pinched at the pocket they might pull back on tipping, but none of that is happening." At the same time, Khosrowshahi says labor markets remain strong as well, citing increased earnings among the company's drivers in the latest quarter. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
0947 ET - Uber is passing along lower insurance costs to consumers, cutting prices across its mobility business in several markets. "One of the most significant causes of price increases in mobility in the U.S. had been insurance," CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says on CNBC. With insurance costs now coming down, Uber cut prices in markets including California, and Khosrowshahi says the lower prices are driving more business. "We've seen an acceleration in terms of bookings in those markets," he says, adding that the company grew both its mobility and delivery business in the U.S. in the latest quarter. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
0939 ET - Uber posts revenue of $14.19 billion in 2Q, up 12% from a year ago but slightly below Wall Street models for $14.24 billion. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on CNBC attributes the miss to a change in how Uber accounts for revenue in the U.K., "so I wouldn't call that a fundamental issue in any way," he says. At the same time, gross bookings jump 24% to $58.02 billion and adjusted earnings come in at 81 cents a share, both ahead of analyst expectations, according to FactSet. "The business continues to execute incredibly well," Khosrowshahi says. Uber is off 4% in early trading. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
0907 ET - Shopify's free cash flow outlook for the third quarter came as a surprise. Oppenheimer analyst Ken Wong says the guidance for free cash flow margin to be in the high-teens to low-twenties is "a nice little step up from the last almost two years." Typically, the company would lean toward more of a "spend for growth" approach, but Wong says that "while it's not a massive step up, it still suggest that we're getting a little more profitability than we were expecting." (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)
0859 ET -- Shopify's artificial intelligence shift is benefiting smaller merchants most of all, says President Harley Finkelstein. He says in an investor call that AI search has been helpful to smaller brands that form the long tail of commerce. "These are brands that also happen to make up the majority of Shopify's merchant base," Finkelstein says, that offer "specialized products built for a particular customer." These are benefiting the most from AI search, with "75% of AI-attributed orders in the second quarter coming from outside our top 100 categories in 2Q." Finkelstein says this is because while search engines rank by popularity against a handful of keywords, AI agents make "multiple calls into Shopify's catalog," working with richer data. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)
0845 ET - The Middle East crisis is still affecting business at brewer Heineken, forcing the company to step up its cost-saving program, finance chief Harold van den Broek says. The greater concern was in the first quarter--when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, sparking a war that has yet to reach a resolution--but Heineken was able to secure supply continuity, Van den Broek tells reporters in a call following the brewer's first-half update. Still, the impact has been significant, reaching more than 100 million euros in extra costs, the executive says. "But we are accelerating our savings program to offset that for this year," he says. Heineken said in its update it expects to reach the upper end of a targeted 400 million euros-500 million euros in annual savings. (joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby)
0821 ET - Bitcoin edges lower amid continued uncertainty over the Middle East conflict. President Trump said he had good discussions with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz would be opened soon but warned he would hit the country hard if that didn't happen. Iran has said there are no talks with the U.S. Meanwhile, Coinkite said AI failed to detect a software flaw that allowed hackers to steal funds from users of the company's bitcoin storage device Coldcard. On the regulatory front, it's unclear whether the U.S. Senate will hold a vote on the Clarity Act crypto bill before a month-long recess at the end of the week. Bitcoin drops 0.4% to $64,034, LSEG data show.(renae.dyer@wsj.com)
0801 ET - Gerresheimer's planned sale of two businesses--Centor in the U.S. and the Primary Packaging Plastics business--will allow the German pharmaceutical packaging company to restructure its debt, UBS says in a research note. "We think the risk reward is more balanced now with prospects of reduced leverage, and upgrade our rating from sell to neutral, and our price target from 12.90 euros to 28.50," UBS analysts say. Following the sale, the key issue for the company shifts from leverage to the quality of earnings. Shares trade 0.3% higher at 27.40 euros.
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