Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk

The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.

1655 ET - The states of Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky will bear the brunt of Canada's proposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, effective Sept. 8, says Trevor Tombe, an economics professor at the University of Calgary. He posted on LinkedIn a map detailing the targeted states, based on the list of products Canada identified for duties overlapped with data from the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis. Canadian officials acknowledge the tariffs were designed in part to exert political pressure on Republicans ahead of the midterms. Other states taking significant hits are Missouri, Alabama and Ohio. (paul.vieira@wsj.com)

1613 ET - Investors are souring on Intuit after the company guided for growth to slow this fiscal year, forecasting revenue up 9% to 10%, compared with 14% growth in the latest year. The projection also missed Wall Street's estimate for a roughly 11% increase. The guidance factors in potential changes in the company's TurboTax business, including a possible free offering aimed at attracting customers with adjusted gross incomes around $50,000, in the hopes of eventually selling them other services, CFO Sandeep Aujla says in an interview. The company's guidance also includes expected declines in its desktop business, and the performance of its Mailchimp business, he says. The stock slides 4.9% to $340.08 in late trading. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

1427 ET - Scotiabank delivered a remarkably strong F3Q, and its long-term turnaround is picking up speed, says TD Cowen's Mario Mendonca, upgrading the stock to buy from hold. The analyst says the bank is making more loans again in its core Canadian business and its international consumer market, while winding down less profitable corporate loans overseas. At the same time, provisions for impaired loans were down more than expected, Mendonca says. "The upgrade reflects renewed loan growth across the bank (except for non-retail IB--we expect some progress in '27), lower PCLs [provisions for credit losses], and ROE [return on equity] progression (particularly in CAD banking)," he says. TD also raises the target price C$141 from C$124. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)

1300 ET - Visits to Dollar General have outpaced those to Dollar Tree for most of this year, according to a recent report from Placer.ai. Rising gas prices in the spring played into Dollar General's strengths, as consumers tightened their belts and pulled back on discretionary spending, the location-analytics firm says. "But as fuel-price pressure eased heading into the summer, Dollar Tree regained momentum--and in July, the chain overtook Dollar General in year-over-year same-store visit growth, with visits up 4.8% YoY compared with 1.9% for Dollar General," the report reads. Placer.ai says several factors likely contributed to Dollar Tree's surge in visits this summer, including pent-up demand following the spring pullback and holiday offerings tied to America's 250th anniversary. "As value remains top of mind, both chains appear poised to continue capturing consumer demand in the months ahead," the report says. Both chains are set to report earnings on Thursday. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1259 ET - Moderna's finding that the mRNA-based vaccine it made with Merck successfully prevented cancer from spreading or returning in melanoma patients is "a big de-risking event for its personalized therapy approach," Wolfe Research analysts write in a note, upgrading the stock to peer perform from underperform. The market's ebullient response may suggest that some traders misunderstood the vaccine as a preventative treatment, they write, and Moderna may still not reach profitability until 2030. Still, the recent data, as well as Moderna's cost-cutting efforts and its patent litigation settlement with Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences GmbH, lead to a balanced risk/reward at the stock's current levels, the analysts write. Moderna's stock gains 14% to $158.10 and has nearly tripled in value over the past month. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1253 ET - The head of President Trump's co-owned cryptocurrency firm, World Liberty Financial, tried to dispel concerns that the firm's stablecoins could be used as a conduit for companies and countries to funnel money to the president. "I would completely dispute that notion," CEO Zach Witkoff tells CNBC's "Squawk Box," saying the company's stablecoins have high volumes and proof that costumers are actually using it. Facing skepticism from the hosts, Witkoff says Trump was a successful businessman before he became president and that the stablecoins are a small piece of the Trump business empire. Witkoff adds that he has never talked to Trump about the business. (dean.seal@wsj.com)

1251 ET - Dollar General and Dollar Tree have both been major beneficiaries of the trade-down economy, delivering consistent overall and comparable sales growth for several quarters running, according to a recent report from Placer.ai. While both chains offer a broad assortment of goods, each has carved out its own niche. Dollar General has emerged as a go-to stop for routine essentials, and the company's stores have seen an influx in visits as inflation-weary consumers tighten their budgets against rising gas prices, the location-analytics firm says. Dollar Tree, on the other hand, is a destination for shorter, mission-driven trips that often skew more discretionary. Both chains are scheduled to report earnings on Thursday. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1250 ET - Visits to Best Buy were up 2.2% in 2Q compared with a year earlier, according to a recent report from Placer.ai. The increase marks the chain's first quarterly year-over-year visit gain in at least four years, the location-analytics firm adds. The shift comes as Best Buy is investing in its in-store experience, launching shop-in-shop Ikea locations and rolling out Meta Labs, which allow interested customers to explore Meta's lineup of artificial-intelligence glasses and virtual-reality headsets. Placer.ai says Best Buy's growth was geographically broad, with visits increasing in more than 40 states. "Time will tell if the turnaround can sustain its momentum," the report reads. "But for now at least, the chain is reaching more shoppers and giving them more reasons to stop by." Best Buy is scheduled to report 2Q earnings on Thursday. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1239 ET - A look at hyperscalers' most recent earnings suggests that the momentum behind custom silicon chips, or ASICs, remains strong, creating upside potential for custom chip makers Broadcom and Marvell Technology, JPMorgan analysts write in a note. Google's most recent results suggested continued investment in its internal TPUs, they note, while Amazon "was much more explicit in validating the custom ASIC thesis" in touting demand for its Trainium chips. "AI infrastructure is becoming increasingly heterogeneous, with hyperscalers optimizing across GPUs, custom AI ASICs, CPUs, networking, and connectivity to improve TCO, performance per watt, supply assurance, and workload-specific efficiency - all of which are highly supportive of our top picks: AVGO and MRVL," the analysts write. Broadcom ticks up 0.4%, while Marvell trades up 5.6%. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1232 ET - The most recent earnings cycle for hyperscalers and cloud service providers suggests that returns on artificial-intelligence investments are improving, JPMorgan analysts write in a note. "The bottom line here is that while it may still be too early to declare victory on AI capex ROI, the green shoots are clearly evident," they write. Commentary from Google, Microsoft, and Amazon points to stronger demand visibility and attractive returns for incremental capacity deployments, with Amazon's commentary in particular implying that investments in servers and networking break even in two or three years. "These trends suggest that prior capital investments may now be translating into stronger backlogs, accelerating cloud business growth, and improving cloud business profitability, though the durability of these benefits remains to be seen," the analysts write. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1219 ET - This could be one of Canada's best years for IPOs since before the pandemic. According to Scotiabank's Jean-Michel Gauthier, the year-to-date tally of eight IPOs is set to exceed 2022's full-year total--also eight--making 2026 the strongest year for new listings since 2019/2020, excluding the exceptional boom of 2021. Gauthier notes that gross proceeds of C$3.1 billion would match 2017 levels, ignoring again the results of 2021. "Accounting for inflation, 2026 could thus be one of the strongest years since the mid-2000s, which was the last period of sustained Canadian market IPO activity," Gauthier adds. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)

1213 ET -- Qatar's residential property market shows renewed momentum in the second quarter, with transaction volumes rising 23.6% from the previous quarter and 15.8% on year to 755 deals, real-estate consultancy ValuStrat says. The median transaction value increases to QAR3 million, around $823,000, up 8.2% on year, while ready-property mortgage transactions reach QAR16 billion across 335 deals. The growth in purchases and mortgage activity indicates that underlying buyer confidence remains resilient, says Anum Hasan, head of research for Qatar at ValuStrat. Residential capital values remained broadly stable, with the ValuStrat Price Index edging only slightly down to 97.8 points in the second quarter from 98.0 in the first. (farhan.rafid@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 25, 2026 16:55 ET (20:55 GMT)