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

1132 GMT - Uber's pending acquisition of the German food-delivery operator Delivery Hero could have a ripple effect across the rideshare industry, Melius Research analysts say. The deal would extend Uber's scale in an area where it is weakest geographically and could force smaller players such as Lyft to consider mergers and acquisitions, the analysts say. Uber's global network already carries scale, depth and breadth that a single-product platform struggles to match, the analysts say, so this deal could push competitors to try to keep up. The delivery industry has already seen a pickup in acquisitions, but nothing approaches the scale of the Delivery Hero deal, they say. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)

1020 GMT - Syensqo still offers good value, Bernstein analyst James Hooper and Sebastien Afoy say in a research note. The Belgian chemicals company's strategic review of its performance and care division should enable more focus on the materials division, where there is higher potential, the analysts say. The trajectory of the share price depends on the outlook of the materials division, and how much value Syensqo could get from scaling the performance and care division, the analysts add. Bernstein raises its price target on the stock to 78 euros from 71 euros. Shares trade 0.2% higher at 71.2 euros. (nina.kienle@wsj.com)

1015 GMT - Vodafone Group's fiscal first-quarter performance shows further reassurance that the company is on the right track thanks to the CEO's recovery plan, AJ Bell's Russ Mould says. Over the past two years, the U.K. telecommunications group has implemented its transformation plan, which included the sale of its Spanish and Italian businesses, and the merger of its U.K. operations with those of rival Three, he notes. "The more focused arena of operations and cleaner balance sheet mean Vodafone is able to compete more effectively in its core target markets across Europe and Africa and the first-quarter results show the benefits," Mould says. Shares are up 4.6% at 1.20 pounds. (najat.kantouar@wsj.com)

0957 GMT - China's move to close tax loopholes on outbound investments poses a near-term sentiment headwind for Hong Kong equities, Citi analysts say in a note. They note that Beijing's tightening of personal-income-tax rules governing offshore trusts reinforces its view that the era of large-scale tax and fee cuts in China has ended. Founders of red-chip companies and firms using variable interest entity structures, which are incorporated outside mainland China, may need to monetize assets to meet their compliance obligations, increasing the risk of forced or pre-emptive stake sales. Ultra-high-net-worth families may also lose the tax incentive to restructure offshore trusts as part of their wealth-management plans. Still, Citi expects Hong Kong's role as a wealth-management hub to remain mostly unaffected. (jason.chau@wsj.com)

0950 GMT - Zara owner Inditex is in a strong position even as inflation bites, thanks to its ability to raise prices and its effective management of stockpiles, Barclays Capital analysts say. The retailer's growth outlook is underpinned by market share gains and higher sales, they say. As well as opportunities for expansion in the U.S. market, wider use of weight-loss drugs will widen Inditex's potential customer base, they say. Recent share price weakness makes now a good time to buy into the stock, the analysts say. "The stock does not look cheap, but it doesn't look expensive either looking across global consumer discretionary." Inditex shares rise 3.1%. (josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)

0927 GMT - Kenneth Dart's Candle Lake has acquired an additional 2 million shares in Evolution, taking its total holding to 30.02% of the shares and votes, thereby crossing the mandatory offer threshold, Pareto Securities says in a note. "In practice, this means Dart has four weeks to either launch a mandatory offer for all remaining shares or sell down below 30% of the votes." The minimum offer price is the highest price Dart has paid over the past six months, which likely is roughly where shares closed Friday, Pareto says. The bank rates Evolution at buy with an 800 Swedish kronor target price. Shares rise 3.8% to 721.60 kronor. (dominic.chopping@wsj.com)

0909 GMT - Z.AI still faces pressure despite its recent revenue milestone and expanded compute plan, Jefferies analysts say in a research note. The latest compute plan should support frontier-model training and meeting customers' growing inference demand. Also, Z.AI's annual recurring revenue reached $1 billion, Jefferies says. However, the surging demand is mainly due to strong adoption of its latest model, and isn't clear whether the growth is sustainable. Rising supply-chain costs and price competition could weigh on margins, they note. Jefferies still favors internet players over standalone model labs, as "full stack platforms like Alibaba and ByteDance can sustain low token prices by reducing costs through proprietary infra, resource scheduling and model optimization." Jefferies has a hold rating and target price of 1,299.80 Hong Kong dollars. Shares last traded at HK$1,281.00. (tracy.qu@wsj.com)

0858 GMT - Shares of European semiconductor companies started the week in green territory after the Trump administration paused plans to escalate its war in Iran, boosting stocks globally. In Asia, South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix closed up 3.3%, while Samsung Electronics shares closed 1.8% higher. In Europe, shares of Dutch semiconductor-equipment maker ASML Holding and smaller rival ASM International are up 1.7% and 0.5%, respectively. German chip maker Infineon Technologies is up 2.1%. STMicroelectronics shares are up 1.9%. Meanwhile, the E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures contract is up 1.6%, pointing to a strong opening of tech stocks in the U.S. (mauro.orru@wsj.com)

0845 GMT - SGS's acceleration in organic growth in the second half of the year was the only marginally positive element in the results, AlphaValue analyst Kulwinder Rajpal says in a research note. The Swiss inspection, verification and testing company posted faster growth across natural resources, health and nutrition, and connectivity and products, Rajpal says. However, growth in industries and environment was hit by the conflict in the Middle East, the analyst adds. As the rest of the results for the first six months of the year came in broadly in line with expectations, the analysts doesn't forecast any rating changes to the stock since consensus already has penciled in reasonable growth and margin expansion, AlphaValue says. Shares trade 0.4% higher at 93.76 Swiss francs. (nina.kienle@wsj.com)

0843 GMT - Malaysia is likely to be a key beneficiary of the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, supported by stronger AI-related participation, with expanded re-export activities and increased Chinese investment inflows, UOB economists say in a note. They say the country has benefited from both long-term production shifts under the China+1 strategy and near-term trade diversion away from China. Looking ahead, sustaining these gains will depend on Malaysia's ability to deepen local manufacturing capabilities, move further up the technology value chain and create more domestic value as tougher rules of origin and anti-transshipment measures take effect, they add. (yingxian.wong@wsj.com)

0818 GMT - SAP shares are gaining ground on Monday, extending a rally from last week after the German business-software group surprised investors with strong revenue figures that showed the resilience of its cloud business. The group's current cloud backlog--a closely watched measure of sales that SAP expects over the coming year based on existing contracts--grew 26% at constant currencies in the second quarter, above expectations of around 24%. Shares in Frankfurt closed 9.3% higher on Friday and are up 5.4% at 147.74 euros on Monday. (mauro.orru@wsj.com)

0801 GMT - CXMT's spectacular debut shows that the strategic bid for chip exposure remains powerful, Tickmill Group's Patrick Munnelly says in a research note. CXMT's shares soared 466% in its Shanghai trading debut, making it the most valuable listed company in mainland China. The robust performance shows how aggressively domestic investors are chasing national semiconductor champions tied to the artificial-intelligence theme, Munnelly says, even as global investors continue to question whether AI capex could justify valuations. While this robust performance doesn't relieve concerns about AI spending, it shows that investors still want chip exposure, especially when national policy and the AI infrastructure build-out align, he adds. (sherry.qin@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 27, 2026 07:32 ET (11:32 GMT)

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