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.
1401 ET - Transcontinental is entering an operational inflection point, according to TD Cowen's Sean Steuart, who expects a 3Q rebound to break a sluggish first half trend. The analyst projects sequential improvement in 2H, driven by "seasonal tailwinds for the Books & Education segment (H2-weighted) and improved in-store marketing contributions." Following a slow start to the year marked by tough comparisons and lower traditional print volumes, he expects year-over-year adjusted Ebitda growth to resume, rising 5% in 3Q to C$61.2 million and adjusted EPS of C$0.40. What's more, Steuart thinks that the market is underestimating Transcontinental's balance sheet deleveraging, supported by noncore asset sales and strong projected free cash flow yields of 18%. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)
1259 ET - Micron Technology's new research initiative aims to help the U.S. get a competitive edge in semiconductor and memory innovation, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra says. The semiconductor company's Micron Research Labs will be headquartered in Boise with satellite campuses around the globe, and bring together a number of stakeholders--including customers, academia, government and the broader semiconductor ecosystem--to pursue breakthroughs in memory and AI, he says. The initiative will be "driving America's leadership in semiconductor and memory technology," he says during an appearance on CNBC. The labs will be backed by a planned $10 billion investment over the next decade, the company says. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
1254 ET - Micron Technology is launching a research institution that will focus on areas like critical memory technologies, advanced memory and compute architectures -- all of which are crucial to advancing AI, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra says. "This is critically important, because memory is [the] strategic infrastructure of AI," he says during an appearance on CNBC. "Memory absolutely requires higher performance." For AI to get smarter, it needs a greater amount of memory, faster memory and lower-power memory, he says.(kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)
0448 ET - The global foldable smartphone market is rebounding, with shipments expected to reach 36 million units by 2028, more than double 2025's volume, according to research firm Omdia. Growth exceeding 20% annually is being driven by a new "wide-format" book-type design offering a portable, tablet-like experience. Following a 1H drop of 21.6%, caused largely by a slump in flip-type devices, wide-format models from Huawei and Samsung are revitalizing the segment, with more Android brands set to follow in 2027, Omdia says. However, high component costs will keep foldables a premium niche. Omdia expects shipments of foldable smartphones to hit 45 million units by 2030, capturing less than 3% of the total smartphone market. (jie.yang@wsj.com)
0333 ET - Kuaishou Technology is set to face continued headwinds, Daiwa analyst John Choi says in a research note. "E-commerce has become a key source of downside," he says. Daiwa forecasts 2H gross merchandise value to decline 10% on year, which would be significantly worse than flattish growth seen in 2Q. A weak e-commerce business, alongside soft advertising revenue, will have a negative impact on earnings, Choi adds. Daiwa downgrades Kuaishou to hold from buy and cuts its target price to HK$72.00 from HK$40.00. Shares are last at HK$33.88. (tracy.qu@wsj.com)
0304 ET - Malaysia's AI investment story could extend beyond data centers, with semiconductor equipment, automation and advanced manufacturing emerging as the next phase of the country's AI opportunity, Kenny Yee, head of research at Rakuten Trade says in a note. The shift is already visible in recent investments, as companies like Vitrox reported sharply higher earnings amid stronger AI-related semiconductor demand, he says. Aixtron is investing 200 million ringgit in a manufacturing and engineering center focused on advanced semiconductor-layer deposition technology, while MKS has opened a factory to support wafer-fabrication equipment demand, he notes. Investors could increasingly look beyond data-center operators toward whoever supplies the technology and equipment behind them. Risks include weaker AI capital spending, semiconductor cyclicality, customer concentration and trade restrictions, he adds. (yingxian.wong@wsj.com)
2252 ET - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing is poised for substantial growth, with its capital expenditure potentially reaching US$80 billion to US$85 billion in 2027, according to a recent Bank of America report. The forecast exceeds the Wall Street consensus estimate of US$75 billion. BofA reiterates its buy rating on TSMC and maintains target price at 3,100 New Taiwan dollars, citing a robust AI demand pipeline. Supporting the expansion, TSMC's board recently approved US$29 billion in capital appropriations. Meanwhile, the company's global expansion is progressing rapidly, with Arizona fab sales surging 145% from a year earlier to NT$45 billion in 2Q, accounting for 4% of consolidated revenue. (jie.yang@wsj.com)
2217 ET - Global humanoid robot shipments are projected to surpass 50,000 units in 2026, with service and industrial applications expected to emerge as the main drivers of demand growth over the next five years, according to Counterpoint Research. The research firm says 1H shipments exceeded 22,000 units, representing nearly 300% on-year growth. The market remains highly concentrated, with China's Agibot leading global shipments with more than 43% share, followed by Unitree at 31%. Competitive advantage is expected to shift beyond model performance and manufacturing scale toward integrated capabilities spanning advanced models, real-world deployment, data infrastructure, and rapid model iteration, Counterpoint says. (jie.yang@wsj.com)
2108 ET - SK Hynix could return at least 245 trillion won to shareholders until 2027, Hanwha Securities' Park Jun-young says. The analyst expects the South Korean chip maker to generate free cash flow of 491 trillion won over 2025-2027--28.8 trillion won last year, 191.6 trillion won this year and 270.6 trillion won next year--as it pledges to return more than 50% of its cumulative FCF to investors. SK Hynix "demonstrates confidence in its future cash generation and financial strength" by announcing a large-scale 40 trillion won share buyback plan preemptively before its cumulative FCF is finalized, Park writes in a note. (kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com)
1910 ET - Several software companies set to report next week will contend with elevated expectations among investors, D.A. Davidson analysts say in a note. Expectations are higher than they have been in a long time for Okta in particular, the analysts say, forecasting an acceleration for the company's current remaining performance obligations growth. Expectations are also high for CrowdStrike and Rubrik, per usual, they say. The analysts expect CrowdStrike to deliver a bigger-than-usual beat on annual recurring revenue after lighter-than-typical upside in the first quarter, and say they can foresee a wide range of potential outcomes for Rubrik given memory prices and other factors. Meanwhile, expectations for SentinelOne are the lowest among the bunch, they say.
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