The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.
1203 ET - Oil prices trim earlier losses after reports that Iran has rejected a U.S. proposal to end the war, but remain pressured by diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. Tehran "responded negatively" to the U.S. proposal to end the war and set out its conditions for any ceasefire--including recognition of Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and financial compensation for damages caused by the conflict--according to Iran's state broadcaster Press TV. However, mediators from Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan are pushing for a meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials. According to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, negotiations could start in Pakistan as early as this weekend. Brent crude falls 2.9% to $97.36 a barrel, while WTI is down 2.3% to $87.69 a barrel. (giulia.petroni@wsj.com)
1102 ET - OpenAI's expanded agentic commerce protocol to help ChatGPT users discover and compare products is clunky and needs some work, and there are likely many iterations to follow, according to Mizuho in a note. Nonetheless, "discovery is getting better. There's more integration with retailers. It's becoming more seamless and native," analyst David Bellinger says. "As we see it, we're getting just a taste of what's to come over the next several years." OpenAI has integrated retailers including Target, Lowe's, Home Depot, Wayfair, Best Buy, and Walmart to the platform, with Walmart working on a more deeply integrated app experience embedded within ChatGPT. Once fulfillment and logistics capabilities catch up, Bellinger says, "agentic should be a force." News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.(elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
1100 ET - The underperformance of U.S. equities versus global peers in March suggests strong dollar purchases as part of month-end portfolio rebalancing, Barclays analysts say in a note. U.S. equities have registered sizeable month-to-date losses amid the ongoing Middle East conflict, which has driven safe-haven flows to the dollar, they say. "U.S. equity market underperformance dominates our month-end model due to its large market cap, and induces a strong dollar-buying signal against all majors." The bank's quarter-end rebalancing model indicates moderate dollar buying. The bank measures foreign versus U.S. month-to-date bond and equity performance to provide an indication of month-end rebalancing foreign exchange demand from portfolio managers who want to maintain currency hedges. (renae.dyer@wsj.com)
1028 ET - The euro remains under pressure against dollar as Iran shows little appetite for compromising with the U.S. in the Middle East conflict, City Index analyst Fawad Razaqzada says in a note. The U.S. sent Iran a 15-point plan--which Iran has been dismissive of--to end the war, the WSJ reports. The euro is unlikely to recover much versus the dollar in the near term unless there's a genuine shift in tone from Iran, Razaqzada says. "Positioning for a quick resolution feels premature." Iran's leverage through rising energy prices arguably outweighs military pressure from the U.S. and its allies, keeping a lid on any euro-dollar gains, he says. The euro falls 0.3% to $1.1573. (renae.dyer@wsj.com)
1022 ET - Arm Holdings' move to sell its own semiconductor chips marks a strategic change in the company's positioning, according to Benchmark in a research note. "While we are highly encouraged by the opportunities of the Arm's new entrance into the silicon market, we are also a bit concerned about the company's long-term ability to seamlessly navigate the fine line between chip supplier and becoming a new competitor to the company's historic IP customer base," analyst Cody Acree writes. While Arm shares are up sharply, Acree warns that much of the new opportunity seems to be already factored into a "near industry high premium valuation," he says. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
1019 ET - Legalized sports betting is tied to rising consumer credit delinquency, New York Fed researchers Daniel Mangrum and Jacob Goss write. In legal counties, delinquency rates climb by more than 0.5 percentage points three years after legalization, "representing a noticeable deterioration" from a baseline of 10.7%, they say. The impact hits young borrowers hardest: credit card delinquency for those under 40 jumps 1.02 percentage points. Residents of states where betting remains illegal travel to neighboring legal counties to wager. While legal states can offset the financial costs of delinquencies with increased tax revenue, neighboring illegal ones can't, in an incentive for legalization, the authors say. (paulo.trevisani@wsj.com; @ptrevisni)
1000 ET - The conflict in Iran hurt dealmaking in the Middle East and Asia in the first quarter and casts a cloud over merger-and-acquisition activity for the rest of the year, Mergermarket says. The value of M&As in the Middle East, excluding Israel, fell to $2.8 billion in the first quarter to date, a tenth of the volume in the year-earlier period, in the slowest start to a year since 2016, according to Mergermarket. Dealmaking in Asia-Pacific also dropped 27% to $165.2 billion, hit by the fallout from the war, the data provider says. Elsewhere, M&A values climbed 32% in North America to $611.1 billion, and rose 48% to $334.7 billion in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, according to Mergermarket. (adria.calatayud@wsj.com)
1000 ET - Funding rounds by artificial intelligence companies drove a rebound in dealmaking activity in the first quarter, according to Mergermarket. In the first quarter to date, global dealmaking volumes jumped 22% on year to $1.16 trillion, the second-highest start to a year ever behind 2021, Mergermarket says. OpenAI's $110 billion raise was the biggest deal of the quarter, and funding rounds from Anthropic and xAI also were among the top ten transactions, according to Mergermarket. In the U.S., six of the top ten deals happened in software and energy--the two core pillars of AI infrastructure--the data provider says. (adria.calatayud@wsj.com)
0958 ET - Arm Holdings says it will sell its own semiconductor chips, a move that Raymond James analysts previously advocated for, on the basis it would yield strong operating profit, aid growth and add a new dimension to the company's strategy. "Although we favored the strategic shift, we were uncertain if it would align with Arm's majority shareholder Softbank's broader strategy," the analysts say in a research note. With the shift, Arm increases its long-term earnings outlook, forecasting a sharp inflection in sales beyond FY28. Raymond James upgrades Arm to outperform from market perform and establishes a price target of $166. Shares rise 15%. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
0936 ET -- Chewy continues to execute well, JPMorgan analysts say in a research note. They cite solid active customer trends, market share gains, increasing sales and margin expansion as reasons to be encouraged by the company's F4Q release. During the recent quarter, the online pet-supplies retailer logged better-than-expected sales and adjusted Ebitda. And looking ahead, Chewy's outlook for the coming year topped Wall Street forecasts. "We expect shares to respond favorably to Chewy's better-than-expected outlook for 8%-9% revenue growth," the analysts write. Shares climb 11% premarket. (connor.hart@wsj.com)
0900 ET - A gradual calming in CoinMarketCap's Fear and Greed Index appears to underpin an improvement in bitcoin prices this month. Bitcoin is trading at $71,400 this morning, making it 5.4% that prices have improved in the past month, according to FactSet data. Meanwhile, CoinMarketCap's Fear and Greed Index is at 37--off from a high of 45 reached last week, but considerably higher than readings as low as 5 last month. Readings between 20 and 40 are considered "fear," but some analysts call for upside in prices in the short-term. Hopes that the conflict in the Middle East may be getting closer to a resolution are part of the optimism. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)
0857 ET - Spanish construction group ACS is increasingly looking to engage with North American investors as it looks to the U.S. as a driver of earnings growth, Bank of America analysts write. ACS is competing for two highway projects in the U.S., the analysts note. Meanwhile, the group's subsidiary, Turner Construction, is set to benefit from U.S. data-center expansion, the analysts say. The hyperscalers that fund the expansion are taking an increasingly collaborative approach to construction, potentially benefiting ACS as companies look to work with well-established contractors, the analysts add. ACS shares climb 1.3% as European construction stocks gain more broadly. (josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 25, 2026 12:03 ET (16:03 GMT)
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