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

1550 ET - Chili's has a strategy for juicing its sales -- creating new chicken sandwiches. Brinker International's casual dining chain is launching six new flavors of its Big Crispy chicken sandwich, and analysts from Raymond James are optimistic that the shake-up could help Chili's capture more of the increasingly competitive chicken-sandwich market. Chili's has historically underperformed in this category partly because its chicken sandwich was difficult to find on its menus, the analysts say. The new chicken sandwiches, which include honey-chipotle and buffalo flavors, will be more prominently featured in Chili's menus and advertising, the analysts say. The market for chicken sandwiches has become increasingly crowded, as Chick-fil-A, Dave's Hot Chicken and other brands compete to deliver the best tasting and most affordable sandwich. (chris.kuo@wsj.com)

1441 ET - The share of businesses citing quantitative impacts from AI adoption is steadily growing, Morgan Stanley analysts say in a note, using AI analysis of earnings calls. They found that 25% of companies in the S&P 500 mentioned at least one measurable benefit in 1Q26, up from 21% in 4Q25 and 13% in 1Q25. The most commonly mentioned benefits are tied to financial impacts, followed by productivity gains. Mentions of AI gains are also most prevalent in the information technology sector, followed by financials and communication services.(elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1357 ET - Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf says the financial health of consumers and businesses remains strong. "Consumers are spending more than a year ago, which includes spending more on gas, but they haven't slowed spending on everything else," he says on a call with analysts. Gas accounted for about 6% of total debit card spend and about 4% of total credit card spend before the war in Iran began, according to Scharf. Now, gas accounts for about 7% and 5% of debit and credit card spend, respectively. "Note that these numbers are higher for low-income households," Scharf adds. "We have seen historically that it often takes consumers several months to reduce their spend levels on other categories to adjust for higher oil prices, and while we don't know the exact timing, we would expect to see the same in the second half of the year." (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1353 ET - Investors hang on every word from the Fed chair. Kevin Warsh, President Trump's nominee to succeed Jerome Powell in the role, was already a sought-after speaker for a variety of audiences, his financial disclosures show. The disclosure lists income from more than a dozen speaking engagements. The precise amounts aren't specified. Many of the audiences have been financial firms including State Street, Piper Sandler and Centerview. Warsh has also made appearances for engineering giant Honeywell, and for the Foodservice Equipment Distributors Association. (matt.grossman@wsj.com; @mattgrossman)

1351 ET - OR Royalties struck a $28 million deal for precious metals from Canadian Copper's operations in eastern Canada. The transaction provides OR with additional precious metals production from a lower-risk jurisdiction, and bolsters the company's five-year guidance, Raymond James' Brian MacArthur says. He notes OR will receive refined silver and gold equal to 20% of the payable metal in concentrate or any other product for the life of the mine and make ongoing payments equal to 20% of the spot price of refined silver or gold for each ounce delivered. OR's shares are up 1.1% at C$55.03, while Canadian Copper jumps 26% to C$0.78. (robb.stewart@wsj.com)

1343 ET - It's no surprise that Kevin Warsh's financial disclosure shows that if confirmed, he may be the wealthiest Fed chair in history. But less well known were his apparent ties to Silicon Valley tech investments. The financial disclosure shows that he owns stakes in dozens of privately held startups. Some are big names like SpaceX and Polymarket. Others are more obscure and quirky: AirGarage, for instance--a company that makes software for parking garages--and Contraline, a medical company working on reversible male fertility treatments. Many of the tech investments appear to have been made under the auspices of Abstract, a San Francisco venture-capital firm. (matt.grossman@wsj.com; @mattgrossman)

1336 ET - The proposed merger of United Airlines and American Airlines, as pitched to senior government officials by Scott Kirby, according to Bloomberg, would create a behemoth. "Before any divestitures, a combined United and American would have 40% of domestic available seat miles," TD Cowen analyst Tom Fitzgerald says in a research note, citing domestic market share data from 1H26 schedules. "Their pro forma share of the 3 NYC airports, the 2 Chicago airports, and LAX would be 45%, 70%, and 46%, respectively." Due to the magnitude, Fitzgerald would expect opposition from state attorneys general and significant lobbying against the deal by the rest of the airline industry, assuming the federal government were to signal its blessing. United shares are up 2.6%, while American shares gain 8.1%. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1330 ET - There's some truth to the artificial-intelligence displacement thesis that has weighed on software stocks this year, UBS analysts Karl Keirstead and Dean Marriott write, citing customer checks at the HumanX AI conference in San Francisco. One consistent theme in their discussions was a focus on custom-built or DIY artificial-intelligence solutions among enterprise customers. "Customers were clear that they are still reliant on 3P software firms, especially for core systems of records (SoR) but they were very willing to harness Claude/GPT, GPU compute as well as their proprietary data to build where they might have otherwise bought," the analysts write. Firms that deal with corporate data, including Palantir, Databricks, and Snowflake, are at less risk than other software-as-a-service or application stocks, the analysts write. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1319 ET - United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has pitched the idea of a merger with American Airlines to senior government officials, according to a Bloomberg report. "It's unclear if any actual process is underway, or if any formal proposals have been made," UBS analysts say in a research note. What is clear, they add, is that any potential deal would face intense regulatory scrutiny. A combination would create by far the largest airline in the world, with over $120 billion in combined revenues prior to any required divestitures, the analysts say. "At the moment, we think the chances of this deal materializing are probably remote," they write. "Still, if this proposed merger goes through, it could prove to be a game changer for the U.S. airline industry and might usher in even more consolidation, helping to drive structurally higher margins for the sector." (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1234 ET - Southwest Airlines is bringing on new talent as part of its efforts to improve the customer experience and its digital presence. The carrier named Sabrina Callahan as its first chief digital and marketing officer, where she'll focus on growing its customer base and shaping how the brand shows up as it enters new markets and offers more options, the company says. Callahan has experience leading modernization initiatives and e-commerce expansion, and previously worked at companies like Hilton, Walmart and AT&T. Southwest also appointed Nandika Suri as vice president of rapid rewards, where she'll work to increase loyalty program membership and bolster relationships with key partners. Suri has previously built and scaled loyalty and rewards proms at companies like Under Armour and United Airlines. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

1220 ET - Amazon is launching a new app that offers "lab-in-the-loop" drug discovery--a process that generates AI-powered predictions that improve through experimental lab feedback--for research organizations. While lab-in-the-loop has transformed research for some organizations, allowing them to accelerate the path from hypothesis to drug candidates, others have struggled to scale the system across programs and teams. The new app, called Amazon Bio Discovery, aims to help researchers scale lab-in-the-loop by bringing computational design and wet-lab validation together in one application, with access to more than 40 AI biology models with AI-guided selection, Amazon says. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

1204 ET - Even if one grants private credit bears' thesis that private credit software deals made in 2021 are likely to drive losses and bring lower returns, private credit is likely to spring back, creating lots of opportunity for investors, Oppenheimer analysts Chris Kotowski and John Coffey write. They note that the 2005 "vintage year" for private credit, pre-financial crisis, is the worst vintage year in their dataset, while the 2009 vintage year was among the best. "It may well be that the 2020 and 2021 vintage years will be rotten vintage years, just like 2005 was," they write. "If the private credit environment is about to get as bad as the bears predict, the 2027 and 2028 vintage years will be years of tremendous opportunity." (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 14, 2026 15:51 ET (19:51 GMT)

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