The latest Market Talks covering Financial Services. Exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1015 ET - Early November is the best time for homebuyers to score a bargain in Milwaukee, Riverside, Calif., and Tampa, Redfin says. In Detroit and three Florida metros--Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach--house hunters may benefit from holding out a little longer. Mid-December is typically the best time of year to get a deal in those places. Nationwide, discounts tend to peak in early fall before plateauing or shrinking as winter approaches. But housing is local, and in these seven metros, peak discounts typically arrive later. Homebuying slows as the holidays approach, leaving sellers with fewer potential buyers. That gives the buyers who remain more room to negotiate. And some late-year listings have been sitting for months, making sellers more motivated to strike a deal before the end of the year. (chris.wack@wsj.com)
0935 ET - Insurers are upping their investments in private markets funds, according to a BlackRock survey of 463 insurers across 31 markets. More than two-fifths of global insurers now allocate over 15% of their investment portfolios to private markets, the survey says. Around three-quarters of those surveyed plan to increase their investments in the asset class over the next 12 months. "Over the past decade, private markets have evolved from an alternative source of yield into an established component of portfolios," BlackRock strategists say. Private debt is particularly in focus, with 41% of respondents saying the area is a target for increased investment. (josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)
0912 ET - PayPal is a leaner business, having reduced headcount by more than 2,000 and removed multiple organizational layers across most areas of the company, CEO Enrique Lores says on a call with analysts. The company is also leveraging artificial intelligence and automation to drive productivity. "For example, our AI chat agents now support customer service across 190 countries and six languages," he says. Moving forward, PayPal will continue to lean on the technology to modernize its operations and innovate faster. The company made solid progress during the recent quarter, Lores says. "And we are building for what comes next, collaborating with Meta and other AI companies to integrate PayPal into personal agents and bring our trusted value proposition to agentic commerce," he says. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
0906 ET - Venmo reports total payment volumes of $96.81 billion in 3Q, up 14% from a year ago and marking its eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, PayPal Chief Financial and Operating Officer Jamie Miller says on a call with analysts. She adds that new users of the payments app are ramping up their product usage faster, as a record number of new users activated the Venmo debit card within their first 30 days during the recent quarter. "Monthly active accounts using both the debit card and pay-with-Venmo nearly doubled year-over-year, building on similarly robust growth in this cohort last year," Miller says. "At the same time, we're also broadening the places where consumers can use pay-with-Venmo, from travel and college tuition to prediction markets, while maintaining strong retention across our established merchant base." (connor.hart@wsj.com)
0853 ET - People are still paying with Venmo. The payments app continues to see strong momentum, PayPal says, with total payment volumes in the latest quarter up 14% from a year ago, at $96.81 billion. Overall, PayPal says active accounts are up 0.6%, with monthly active accounts--a subset of active accounts that complete a transaction at least once during the month of measurement--ticking up 0.4%, largely driven by Venmo, the company says. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
0527 ET - HSBC Holdings' results aren't disastrous but the bank's shares have been hit by the company's high bar for itself, Quilter Cheviot's Will Howlett writes. The earnings fell a little short of market expectations, with weaker-than-expected revenue, the analyst says. "Following a strong run for the shares, investors have become accustomed to robust results, so even relatively modest misses can prompt a sharper reaction." The fall in the share price is due to disappointment against high expectations rather than a weakening in the underlying business, he adds. Shares are down 6.8%. (michael.hennessey@wsj.com)
0436 ET - HSBC Holdings' third-quarter results are disappointing, particularly due to the bank's report of competitive pressure on Hong Kong deposit pricing, according to Keefe, Bruyette and Woods. Earnings missed expectations, with weaker-than-expected net interest income and wealth fees, though impairments were better than forecast, KBW analysts Edward Firth and Fatima Ghaznavi write. HSBC flagged emerging competition and cost pressures on customer deposits in Hong Kong, which KBW sees as "particularly disappointing". There is little in HSBC's results to justify the bank's premium rating, KBW adds. Shares are down 7.05% in London. (michael.hennessey@wsj.com)
0418 ET - Shares in HSBC Holdings plummet after the London-based bank missed expectations for its banking net interest income and wealth business. Performance was soft in the third quarter in both units, Barclays analysts say. Net interest income was hit in particular by rising deposit costs, which is a broader theme across the sector, the analysts write. Unchanged guidance also implies a weaker run-rate for banking net interest income into 2027, Barclays adds. At face value, Barclays estimates this could be worth around 4% off 2027 consensus pretax profit expectations. Despite this, HSBC's capital outlook improves as it now forecasts a better-than-expected impact from the Basel regulatory reforms worth between 40 and 50 basis points, which could support the case for future share buybacks, JPM writes. Shares are down 6.4%. (michael.hennessey@wsj.com)
0403 ET - HSBC Holdings' third-quarter results were mixed, with deposit pressure emerging for the London-based bank, J.P. Morgan analysts write in a note. Banking net interest income was 2% below expectations while wealth performance was 4% lower than expected, JPM says. Banking net interest income was weighed by deposit pressure and competition in Hong Kong and the U.K., the analysts say. Unchanged 2026 net interest income guidance of at least $46 billion might disappoint against expectations of around $47 billion, JPM says. Overall, JPM expects low-single-digit downgrades to consensus earnings per share expectations for 2026 through 2028 due to weaker trends in net interest income and wealth. Shares are down 6.6%. (michael.hennessey@wsj.com)
0352 ET - Jefferies deems HSBC's 3Q results reasonable, with both net interest income and wealth revenue appearing better than reported when excluding some one-offs. Management also maintained its banking NII guidance of at least $46 billion for 2026. That said, consensus NII projections of $49.7 billion for 2027 and $51.7 billion for 2028 now look ambitious to analysts Joseph Dickerson and Theo Massing "given rising time deposit mix in Hong Kong and higher deposit betas." That will be the challenge for shares today, they write in a note. The lender's Hong Kong-listed stock is down 5.3% at 134.70 Hong Kong dollars. (farah.elias@wsj.com)
1905 ET [Dow Jones]--Morgans analyst Nathan Lead stays cautious on ANZ ahead of its annual result announcement next month. With an unchanged trim rating, Lead acknowledges that ANZ trades on lower multiples than its domestic banking peers, but warns of complexities from its institutional exposure, international activities, and funding reliance on wholesale and term deposits. Lead modestly lifts his EPS forecasts through fiscal 2028 but tells clients in a note that he remains skeptical that ANZ can deliver on CEO Nuno Matos's revenue targets. Morgans forecasts a fiscal 2026 cash profit of 7.5 billion Australian dollars. Target price rises 2.7% to A$34.44. Shares are at A$39.90 ahead of the open. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)
1847 ET - The synergies that Daiichi Life could extract from Challenger may justify it making an improved offer for the Australian annuity provider, UBS analysts say. Having assessed capital and cost synergies, the UBS analysts think the Japanese insurer could lift its offer from 11.80 Australian dollars a share, to between A$12.90 and A$13.30. Even if it doesn't value Challenger's offshore expansion initiative, a range of A$12.40 to A$13.30 looks reasonable, they write in a note. UBS keeps a neutral rating and an A$12.25 target price on the stock. Shares are at A$11.85 ahead of the open.
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