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

2018 ET - Japanese stocks are lower amid uncertainty over the Iran conflict, one day after the benchmark index soared to a record high. Technology and financial stocks are leading the declines. SoftBank Group is down 4.8%, and Daiwa Securities is 3.6% lower. The dollar is at 156.82 yen, compared with Y156.38 as of Thursday's Tokyo stock market close. Investors are closely watching developments in the Middle East after the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire in the Persian Gulf. Japanese corporate earnings are also in focus. The Nikkei Stock Average is down 0.8% at 62330.70. (kosaku.narioka@wsj.com; @kosakunarioka)

1945 ET - Japanese stocks may decline amid uncertainty over the Middle East conflict, one day after the benchmark index surged to an all-time high. Nikkei futures are down 1.4% at 62230 on the SGX. The dollar is at 156.90 yen, compared with Y156.38 as of Thursday's Tokyo stock market close. The U.S. military said Iran launched attacks at U.S. warships near the Strait of Hormuz, and that the U.S. responded. President Trump said the cease-fire with Iran is still in effect. Japanese corporate earnings are also in focus. The Nikkei Stock Average rose 5.6% to 62833.84 on Thursday. (kosaku.narioka@wsj.com)

1943 ET - QBE Insurance's catastrophe claims for the four months through April are a little ahead of Citi's expectations but only because $60 million of Middle East crisis losses are included. Citi says catastrophe claims are favorable versus its allowance. Catastrophe costs of $300 million through April are under its 1H allowance of $517 million. That implies an allowance for May and June of $217 million. "This should be more than sufficient barring a particularly adverse two months," analyst Nigel Pittaway says. Overall, QBE's 1Q update is largely as Citi expected. It has a buy call on the stock. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

1940 ET - Australian bookmaker Tabcorp loses a bull after the country's financial crimes watchdog began investigating its money-laundering and terrorism-funding countermeasures. Jefferies downgrades Tabcorp to hold, from buy, noting previous probes in the sector have been long-dated, costly, and disruptive. "All potential outcomes are on the table, but this will likely remain a prolonged overhang," analyst Kai Erman says. "Teachings from prior investigations indicate risk can be beyond a punitive fine, but also to operating earnings." Tabcorp said Thursday that it would collaborate with AUSTRAC, the regulator, over its latest investigation. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

1939 ET - Mining explosives maker Orica's growth businesses are firing, says Jefferies. EBIT of the Specialty Chemicals and Digital divisions both rose by at least 20% in 1H. Orica expects a strong 2H from the pair as well. Jefferies forecasts a combined annual growth of 10% through FY27-28. Orica highlighted its cyanide capacity in APAC and the U.S. is sold out. Therefore, it is relying on third-party volumes to drive growth while exploring opportunities to unlock capacity within its own operations. This should be supportive of growth, analyst Ramoun Lazar says. "Overall, we expect non-blasting businesses to approach 12% return on invested capital by end-FY28, which should start to support group value creation after years of dilution," Jefferies says. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

1919 ET [Dow Jones]--Super Retail's bull at Macquarie thinks conditions won't improve much for another year at least. "Given recent interest rate hikes and persisting inflation, we currently model no material improvement in consumer behavior in FY 2027," Macquarie says. It expects like-for-like sales by Super Retail's Macpac and BCF businesses to remain flat or negative in this period. Rebel and Supercheap same-store sales will only be modestly positive, it contends. Macquarie lowers its price target by 13% to A$15.50/share. Super Retail ended Thursday at A$11.32/share. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

Macquarie agrees with Light & Wonder's plan to accelerate share repurchases in the second quarter. Light & Wonder has around US$314 million remaining in its current share buyback program. That's roughly equivalent to 5% of its market value. If achieved, the buyback program could boost EPS by some 5% on an annualized basis. Still, Macquarie says it would keep leverage, based on net debt-to-Ebitda, above 3.0x until 2Q of 2027. "This remains a debate with investors, with some wanting Light & Wonder to prioritize deleveraging versus buybacks," Macquarie says. It retains an outperform call on Light & Wonder, while trimming its price target by 2.4% to A$200.00/share. Light & Wonder ended Thursday at A$102.66. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

1845 ET - Lyft says construction is underway on a facility in Nashville that will service, charge and maintain Waymo's autonomous vehicles at scale. The ride-hailing platform says its fleet management infrastructure and depot capabilities give it an advantage as AV deployments start to scale, given competitors will have to pay someone else to do the work of charging, maintaining, cleaning, depot infrastructure and fleet orchestration. "We don't. Flexdrive has spent a decade and built dozens of facilities doing this. Nashville isn't where we're learning how to do this, it's where we are starting to commercialize it," Lyft says. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

1835 ET [Dow Jones]--Lyft says its efforts to bolster its roster of partnerships are bearing fruit. In the latest quarter, nearly 27% of rides in North America were linked to a partnership, marking an all-time high, Lyft says. The company's relationships, with the likes of credit card companies such as Chase and carriers like United Airlines, allow its customers to earn rewards points for those partners' loyalty programs with Lyft rides. The company has been working to deepen its partnerships recently, including a move to allow riders to now spend their United points on Lyft rides, as well as an expansion of its DoorDash partnership to Canada. "What's important is that these are not one-time campaigns. And now as a global company, we can take what works in one place and roll it out in others," the company says. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

1829 ET [Dow Jones]-- Lyft says rides growth was weighed down by harsh winter weather in the latest quarter, with severe winter storms in the Northeast denting the metric by more than 3 million rides, it estimates. "We experienced numerous weather events that affected more than half of Americans, impacting our business not just during the storms but for days after as we worked to rebalance the market," the company says. The ride-hailing platform's rides rose 8.5% from a year ago to 236.9 million in the first quarter, missing analysts' forecast of 241.2 million rides, according to FactSet. Still, the metric benefited from the company's roster of partnerships with credit cards and airlines, which allow its riders to earn rewards points on rides. Shares fall 2.9%, to $13.75, in after-hours trading. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

1757 ET - The stream of layoffs related to artificial-intelligence continues, with Cloudflare and Upwork joining PayPal, Coinbase, and Freshworks in announcing substantial, AI-inflected cuts to their workforces this week. Upwork says it will cut around 24% of its staff, with CEO Hayden Brown noting that the "nature of work continues to shift as AI advances." Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince says that the company is "embracing an agentic AI-first operating model," announcing plans to cut approximately 1,100 jobs. Upwork falls 18% after-hours; Cloudflare is down 14%. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1613 ET - Airbnb says it is saving by using more artificial intelligence. The short-term rental company saw its cost-per-booking decrease by about 10% year-over-year in the first quarter, thanks to an increase in AI usage. Airbnb is using more AI in its customer support and its coding. Nearly 60% of the code Airbnb engineers produce is now coauthored with AI, the company says, which it estimates to be about twice the industry average. Airbnb cited better monetization as one of the reasons why it raised full-year guidance.(katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 07, 2026 20:18 ET (00:18 GMT)

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