Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk

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

1946 ET - Japanese stocks might decline as uncertainty over the Iran war continues. The market could also be weighed by caution ahead of Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh's speech at the Jackson Hole symposium due later Friday. Nikkei futures are down 0.2% at 66060 on the SGX. The dollar is at 159.34 yen, compared with Y159.35 as of Thursday's Tokyo stock market close. Investors are focusing on any developments in the Middle East and crude oil prices. The Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.2% to 66131.98 on Thursday. (kosaku.narioka@wsj.com)

1935 ET - Gap CEO Richard Dickson says Old Navy's incoming CEO Michael Francis, a retail veteran who previously led marketing at Target, is already helping to bolster a key area of recent weakness for the brand. Part of Old Navy's recent weakness was driven by marketing shortfalls that led traffic to slow, Dickson says. Francis has been helping with the brand's fall marketing and sharpening product storytelling, which is already leading to improved results, Dickson says. "He's already had meaningful impact," Dickson says during a call with analysts. "The marketing execution you see happening right now, he's had a handprint on." (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

1928 ET - Australian stocks are poised to rise in early trade, giving the country's benchmark index a shot at avoiding a third straight weekly decline. Local futures are up by 0.2% ahead of Friday's session, suggesting the S&P/ASX 200 will rally from Thursday's 1% drop and could climb back above the gain line for the week. The ASX 200 is down by 0.2% across four sessions and up by 0.7% so far in August. Ahead of Friday's session, Virgin Australia reported a 4.7% rise in annual profit and declared its first dividend since listing in 2025. Gold miner Evolution said it had acquired a 14% stake in Carnaby Resources ahead of its planned takeover. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

1925 ET - Gap says Athleta sales will likely remain under pressure as it continues work to turn around the brand, a process it says remains in early stages. "We are increasing newness, reducing reliance on promotions, and seeking to rebuild customer engagement through better product and stronger storytelling," Gap CEO Richard Dickson says during a call with analysts. With those efforts in place, the company is taking a measured approach to inventory and marketing investments as it assesses customers' response in the second half of the year, he says. "While this approach may limit top-line improvement in the near-term, we believe it is important to rebuild the business on a stronger foundation for sustainable growth," he says. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

Gap says two factors weighed on Old Navy in the latest quarter: one it saw coming, and another it didn't. CEO Richard Dickson says executives had expected pressure from Old Navy's seasonal assortment for women, which resulted in declines in dresses, shorts and swim. "What we did not anticipate was the degree to which our marketing would fall short in driving traffic," he says during a call with analysts. "We are not satisfied with this result and have responded quickly." The company expects the headwinds from its summer products to fade in the current quarter, and has rewired its marketing strategy, he says. Old Navy's fall denim campaign with rapper Cardi B is off to a good start, he says. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

1908 ET - Gap is bringing in a retail veteran to bolster results at Old Navy, its largest brand which has been weighing on results recently. Gap named Michael Francis as the brand's new CEO alongside its quarterly results. Francis helped to cultivate Target's cheap-chic image as chief marketing officer in the early 2000s, and later was a key consultant at Walmart for about a decade. Jefferies analysts say the appointment "underscores management's focus on stabilizing performance at the company's largest banner." (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

1457 ET - Synopsys is set up for a strong fiscal 2027 after a turnaround year, Baird analysts write in a note, upgrading the stock to outperform and lifting their price target by $2 to $560. Although investors have punished the chip-design software company for showing less upside this year than others in the semiconductor space, "since cutting guidance last September, the evidence always pointed to FY26 being a turnaround year," the analysts write. Now, the last two quarters of fiscal 2026 are tracking ahead, expectations are low, and there's room for upside entering fiscal 2027. After Wednesday's 3Q print showed 40% revenue growth, they write, "we would be surprised if the stock went through further de-rating from current levels if these results are coming through." Synposys shares gain 13%. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1452 ET - Nvidia appears to be prioritizing support for customers in its AI Clouds, Industrial, & Enterprise bucket, in what UBS analysts see as a pointed look to hyperscalers working on developing their own custom chips. Hyperscalers still comprise around 55% of data-center revenue, but Nvidia intends to shift its mix toward ACIE, a bucket essentially comprising non-hyperscale customers. "We think it is prioritizing support for these customers amid expanding demand (hyperscalers are even running excess workload through the neoclouds to expand capacity)," the analysts write. "This also works well for NVDA since many of the hyperscalers are all working on their own silicon roadmaps so there is an increasingly clear 'line in the sand' being drawn." (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1442 ET - Nvidia's second-quarter release suggests that SpaceX may have contributed around $13 billion in revenue over the past six months, implying a trajectory of one gigawatt a year, UBS analysts write in a note. "This is a number that should increase dramatically," they add. Nvidia breaks down data center revenue into hyperscalers and a bucket called AI Clouds, Industrial, & Enterprise, and in the second quarter reclassified one customer from ACIE to hyperscaler -- a company UBS suspects to be SpaceX. If true, the numbers before and after the reclassification indicate SpaceX added $6.14 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025, $18.15 billion in fiscal 2026, and $5.18 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2027. SpaceX has made Nvidia its exclusive chip provider, Elon Musk said earlier this month. Nvidia gains 8.2%. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1420 ET - Alternative lender EQB's core ran into challenges during a "noisy" F3Q that included one month of recently acquired PC Financial earnings, according to Scotiabank's Mike Rizvanovic. The analyst says "credit losses jumped in most parts of the book, including residential mortgages, and GILs [gross impaired loans] increased across the board." He also notes that fee-based revenue came in weaker than expected, and loan volumes outside of credit card balances were roughly flat. Not all was amiss, however. Rizvanovic points to net interest margin, excluding the PC Financial acquisition, that was stable sequentially, while retail deposit growth improved by 8% thanks to a pick-up in demand deposits. EQB falls 9.7% to C$124.50. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)

1306 ET - New listings rose 0.4% from a week earlier during the four weeks ending Aug. 23, Redfin says. That's their highest level since April. The total number of homes for sale rose 0.5% week over week, hitting their highest level since May. Pending home sales slipped 1.1% from a week earlier. Would-be buyers are sitting on the sidelines largely because housing costs are high. The median U.S. home-sale price rose 1.9% year over year to over $400,000, and the weekly average mortgage rate is 6.65%, down from a peak of 6.69% two weeks earlier. With inventory rising and demand declining, the homebuyers who are in the market could get a deal. Buyers may be able to negotiate prices down and/or get concessions.(chris.wack@wsj.com)

1303 ET - While Nvidia's decision to reset expectations for its gross margins is a negative, it shouldn't dramatically impact earnings and reflects a conscious trade-off for the company, Benchmark analyst Cody Acree writes in a note. The reset was driven by the rising cost of memory chips, Acree writes, noting that Nvidia is raising prices in the first quarter but also absorbing part of the cost inflation. "We believe the decision reflects a deliberate trade-off: preserve customer economics and deployment velocity while using scale, mix and future manufacturing learning to rebuild part of the margin," Acree writes. "The earnings impact remains manageable because revenue rises much faster than operating expense." (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 27, 2026 19:46 ET (23:46 GMT)