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.
0813 GMT - Ericsson's third-quarter outperformance and fourth-quarter outlook points to year-on-year growth in 2027, Jefferies analyst Janardan Menon writes. Despite management's component-cost warnings, margins have held up due to mitigation measures, and Jefferies doesn't expect a material headwind in 2027 either. In addition, Ericsson's lack of AI exposure makes it resilient amid the current market scepticism on the sustainability of AI investment strength, Jefferies says. A flat radio access network market and the lack of margin upside limits earnings growth, but a new buyback program at the 2027 AGM could provide some upside, it adds. The bank reiterates its hold rating on the stock and raises its price target to 105 Swedish kronor from 98 kronor. Shares rise 1.1% to 104.85 kronor. (dominic.chopping@wsj.com)
0739 GMT - Kuaishou Technology's Kling could gain market share from ByteDance's Seedance, Citi analysts say in a research note. The AI video unit of Kuaishou officially launched Kling 4.0 on Thursday with upgrades. While the updated model has shown significant improvement in the continuity and consistency of complex movements, it may still be slightly behind Seedance 2.5, Citi says. However, Kling's cost per second is slightly lower than Seedance's. With pricing below Seedance 2.5 and video effects close to Seedance 2.5, Kling 4.0 could gain some market share and improve its grossing trajectories ahead, Citi adds. Kuaishou's shares are 2.3% higher at HK$29.24. (sherry.qin@wsj.com)
0436 GMT - Samsung SDS appears better positioned than its domestic information-technology peers to capitalize on artificial-intelligence demand, Nomura analyst Angela Hong says. The Samsung Group affiliate's planned AI infrastructure capacity could be supported by computing demand from its parent conglomerate, reducing its reliance on large outside customers, Hong writes in a note. External enterprise demand, including third-party data center design-build-operate projects, could provide additional growth opportunities, she says. The analyst points to the company's plan to expand its AI data-center capacity to 230 megawatts from 110MW by 2029 and more than 800MW--including 500MW from DBO projects--by 2031. Nomura initiates coverage of the stock with a buy rating and 250,000 won target price. Shares are up 3.7% at 201,500 won. (kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com)
0405 GMT - Network capacity and efficiency are expected to improve as CelcomDigi and Maxis secure additional spectrum adjacent to their existing holdings, Hong Leong IB analyst Toh Woo Kim says in a note. The awards, worth 381.8 million ringgit for CelcomDigi and 203 million ringgit for Maxis, give both operators direct ownership of spectrum previously accessed through partners, he notes. The additional capacity should support rising data demand without requiring as much spending on new network sites, he says. The financial impact is expected to be broadly neutral, as spectrum costs should be offset by lower network spending, he adds. Hong Leong maintains an overweight rating on the Malaysian telco sector, pegging Telekom Malaysia and CelcomDigi as its top picks. (yingxian.wong@wsj.com)
0344 GMT - Toho's film business appears to be doing well, Nomura's Naruhito Miki says in a research report. The Japanese company has raised full fiscal-year guidance for box office revenue from movies it distributes to 95.0 billion yen-105.0 billion yen from 90.0 billion yen-100.0 billion yen, the analyst notes. Nomura's focus is on box office revenue from Toho's "Godzilla Minus Zero" film, which is scheduled for release in November, and earnings contributions from Toho's "The Apothecary Diaries" anime series. The brokerage slightly raises the stock's target price to 1,500 yen from 1,490 yen, with an unchanged neutral rating. Shares are 2.3% lower at 1,526 yen. (ronnie.harui@wsj.com)
0331 GMT - TSMC's capital spending is likely to reach US$83 billion in 2027 and US$92 billion in 2028, Morgan Stanley estimates, factoring in the chip maker's 2-nanometer and 1.4-nanometer chip capacity expansion. TSMC has a capex target of US$60 billion to US$64 billion this year. TSMC management said in the 3Q post-earnings call that it plans to more than double its 2-nanometer capacity build by 2027. TSMC's 3Q gross margin at 66.4% missed MS's expectation of 67.5%. The company's 4Q margin guidance midpoint of 66% shows continued pressure due to the 2-nanometer ramp-up and expanding overseas operation, MS says. MS maintains its target price of 3,088 New Taiwan dollars on TSMC. The stock is down 0.4% at NT$2,430. (sherry.qin@wsj.com)
0248 GMT - TSMC is still best-placed in the AI arena, Citi analysts say in a research note. Strong advanced-chip demand into next year and long-term order visibility should support its higher capex cycle. The chip maker reiterated its 2026 capex guidance between US$60 billion- US$64 billion and sees significant upside through 2028. Although its overseas operation and 2-nanometer production ramp-up should dilute margins initially, TSMC's gross margin downside is manageable due to its cross-node leverage, high utilization and yields rates, they say. Given TSMC's robust demand outlook and visibility, Citi thinks the company is less vulnerable to recent macro concerns. The bank maintains its target price for TSMC at NT$4,000. Shares are down 0.2% at NT$2,435.00. (sherry.qin@wsj.com)
2148 GMT - Shopify appears to be testing higher prices on select annual plans, Jefferies analysts say in a research note. The firm's research team recently noticed different prices for Shopify's annually billed Grow and Advanced plans when visiting from different devices, with the company's Grow plan increasing 13% to $89 a month and its Advanced plan rising 20% to $359 a month, the analysts say. "The change appears to be a targeted A/B test: We see no change to Basic pricing, monthly Grow or Advanced plans, or Shopify Plus plans," they write. Overall, the analysts see the increases as a positive signal that long-awaited price increases are actually in the works. However, if the hikes are limited to the select increases that the analysts found today, investors are likely to be underwhelmed by the breadth and magnitude, they add. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
1739 GMT - Deutsche Bank analysts see a buying opportunity in the recent selloff of CoreWeave. It appears as though the move was being driven broadly by changing AI financing sentiment, with no obvious company-specific factors and a supportive backdrop of AI infrastructure demand. "If this is purely about broader AI financing concerns we'd argue CoreWeave continues to scale rather responsibly," the analysts say in a note, observing that the company has solid near-term liquidity, good partnerships, and pricing and margin power. "A strong customer base, established record of execution, backlog conversion and leading infrastructure performance is all supportive of their issuer profile relative to neocloud peers, in our view," the analysts say. CoreWeave shares are now up 2.3% but down 18% this week. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1702 GMT - An apparent deceleration in Anthropic's revenue growth for the first three quarters of the year, as reported by WSJ and Financial Times, shouldn't be taken as a signal of faltering AI demand, D.A. Davidson's Gil Luria and Turner Dischinger say in a note. The slowdown may reflect OpenAI catching up as "this was the breakout quarter for open weight models," as well as growing use of open-weight models for less intensive or critical tasks. Though businesses are diversifying away from the two AI heavyweights, overall AI spending seems to be continuing on a steep upward trajectory, the analysts say. "This overall demand should support more AI compute demand and more data center construction, even if it doesn't meet the most outlandish extrapolations." (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1529 GMT - The artificial-intelligence investment boom increasingly looks like it will struggle to generate sufficient returns, Panmure Liberum strategist Joachim Klement says. "We are seeing some blocks being pulled out of the Jenga Tower that is the AI capex boom," Klement says. "Higher debt costs makes it extremely difficult for neoclouds and hyperscalers to finance further data centers now that their free cash flows have evaporated." For instance, cloud-computing company CoreWeave saw its cost of borrowing soar over the past two sessions as shares in chip makers and data center companies are falling sharply across the globe. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index pares losses to fall 1.7% Thursday, though the index remains on track to extend its losing run to seven days--its longest losing streak since May 2025. (josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)
1510 GMT - Ramp is eyeing an initial public offering, but isn't in a rush, Chief Executive Eric Glyman says on CNBC. An IPO "will be in the coming years," Glyman says. However, he says he isn't trying to time the IPO with market dynamics. Glyman says he is focused on increasing Ramp's value right now and wants the company's financials to be fully in place before looking into going public. In the meantime, Glyman says he is interested to see how Anthropic's IPO goes.
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