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

1233 ET - Crude futures extend losses, with both Brent and WTI falling more than 5.5% as a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Iran appears to hold despite violations on both sides earlier on Tuesday. "In the last 24 hours, the geopolitical landscape has shifted dramatically--removing a supply risk premium that had built over the previous 12 days," says Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo. In evening trade, both oil benchmarks fall 5.7% to $66.52 and $64.59 a barrel, respectively, and are down between 12% and 13% on the week. "The geopolitical risk premium was unlikely to be sustained in the absence of actual supply disruptions," Hansen says. "This is especially true given macro headwinds tied to the ongoing U.S.-China trade war, and an outlook for ample supply into the autumn and winter months following recent output target increases from OPEC+." (giulia.petroni@wsj.com)

1230 ET - Reddit is looking for ways to navigate Google's changing search feature, Deutsche Bank analysts say. The social-media platform is trying to diversify user acquisition channels to platforms beyond Google as the search engine ups its usage of AI summaries to answer user queries. Reddit is improving its search experience and landing page for logged-out users with curated integration of Reddit answers. It's also considering using paid marketing. The goal is to support more user signups as Google's AI feature will likely take away users who don't have Reddit accounts, but come to the site from Google search. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)

1223 ET - Carnival surpassed expectations in its latest quarter, boosted by what CEO Josh Weinstein says was very strong demand for trips and broad-based improvements in onboard spending. These trends are expected to float into 2026, positioning the cruise operator for another successful year. Carnival's book position is in-line with last year's levels and at historically high prices, Weinstein says on a call with analysts. "Our elongated advanced booking window and limited capacity growth give us flexibility to patiently take price, and our sharpened yield management tools are helping us optimize our performance in the current environment," he adds. Carnival climbs 7% following a better-than-expected F2Q. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1220 ET - Carnival CEO Josh Weinstein says it is too early to predict how the cruise line could be affected by Israel/Iran conflict. "While we certainly hope for a quick and peaceful resolution, and it has not yet had any discernible impact on our business, this is all unfolding too quickly in real time to try to project how it could impact our future business," he says on a call with analysts. Weinstein notes that Carnival will actively monitor the situation in the Middle East and provide updates as needed in the interim. Carnival surges 7% after raising its outlook for the year. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1148 ET - Levi Strauss's 2Q results will be pivotal for the retailer as it looks to demonstrate consistent progress, BofA Securities analysts say in a note. Management will need to rebuild confidence that the brand is gaining share, which appears likely in its women's denim and non-denim categories, the analysts say. Levi's also seems on track for an increasingly smaller drag from its wholesale business, which could drive upside to full-year sales estimates if it continues to outperform, they say. They raise their price target on the stock to $21 from $20. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

1134 ET - Copper is slightly higher on week as exchange inventories continue to dwindle, RBC Capital Markets analysts say in a note. Traders have been redirecting metal to the U.S. in a bid to get ahead of a potential U.S. copper import tariff. LME inventories of copper are now down more than 63% year to date at 99,000 metric tons, exacerbating an already tight market environment, RBC writes. This significant fall has pushed the LME to impose restrictions on large holders of inventory. At the same time however, Chinese import premiums have slid, potentially indicating softening demand fundamentals, RBC adds. Current base metal prices are mixed, with LME three-month copper flat at $9,690.50 a metric ton and LME three-month aluminum down 0.8% at $2,572.0 a ton. (joseph.hoppe@wsj.com)

1058 ET - CGI's declining job posting indicates organic growth will likely be negative in 3Q. RBC's Paul Treiber says in a report that CGI's job postings declined another 12% quarter-over-quarter in June, after a 4% drop last quarter. He says this is the fourth consecutive quarter of sequential declines. This suggests CGI's organic growth is "likely to remain negative in 3Q (June-quarter)," and Treiber figures that the company will see a 1.3% decline in constant currency organic growth, slightly below consensus of 1.1% decline. To offset this, the company may need to continue to rely on acquisitions which "have been the driver of CGI's value creation over the long-term (10% per annum adj. EPS growth vs. 2% organic growth over the last 10 years)." (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)

1058 ET - Mapfre is finally starting to show sustainable margins improvements in property and casualty insurance in Iberia, led by its motor activities, Barclays says. "We believe the full extent of the opportunity has yet to be captured by the market," analyst Alessia Magni and Ivan Bokhmat write in a research note. Unlike in most European countries, pricing is still accelerating in Spain, supporting margin uplifts in the near future. They expect Brazil and other Latin American markets to continue to deliver. Barclays raises its rating on the stock to equal weight from underweight and its price target to 3.5 euros from 2.3 euros. Shares rise 3.7% to 3.42 euros. (elena.vardon@wsj.com)

1056 ET - KB Home cut its outlook for the year again, and still there's some risk, say BofA Securities analysts in a research note. The home builder now expects housing revenue of $6.3 billion to $6.5 billion for FY25, down from its prior guidance of $6.6 billion to $7 billion from March and initial guidance between $7 billion to $7.5 billion in January. The analysts view some risk in the guidance given it implies a quarter-over-quarter improvement in 4Q margins. "We model revenue below the low-end of guidance given KB Home finished [2Q] with a backlog down 24% year-over-year, community count will [be] flattish year-over-year and housing demand remains soft," they add. (denny.jacob@wsj.com; @pennedbyden)

1047 ET - Ayvens's ownership by Societe Generale is sound, UBS says in a research note. The French bank owns a majority stake in what is the largest car-leasing business in Europe, which it floated in 2017 and enlarged with LeasePlan in 2023. Societe Generale sees the unit as core, as it is one of the two divisions with BoursoBank where management has a growing capital commitment, analysts Jason Napier and Nicolas O'Sullivan write. The group's profits should increase based on integration gains and industry growth, they say. "The key debate for the stock is what sustainable returns are after a period of substantial volatility in used car prices and integration one-offs," they add. UBS starts covering Ayvens stock with a buy rating and 12-euro price target. Shares are up 5.8% at 9.27 euros. (elena.vardon@wsj.com)

1043 ET - Canadian carriers may be seeing a return to normal mobile plan pricing, and TD Cowen's Vince Valentini thinks Rogers may be best placed to benefit. The analyst says in a report that Rogers has an industry-leading mix of wireless Ebitda and its sector-low valuation, which should attract investors to the stock. Valentini says that investor sentiment toward the sector is gradually improving, with some hope that key metrics like revenue and Ebitda estimates for 2026 could start to move higher over the next few months, but says "we first need to see relative discipline on pricing during the critical back-to-school season from mid-August to mid-September." (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)

1034 ET - European banks are well placed to absorb a potential increase in credit losses from rising trade tensions, S&P Global Ratings says in a report. However, these tensions are set to moderately reduce their profits. "Our stress test revealed that additional credit losses from corporate sectors that are most at risk due to their reliance on U.S. trade could reduce median pretax profits by 17%-29%, with significant variations around this median," analysts write. Only a handful of lenders could potentially see a significant effect, they note. European banks' asset quality remains resilient and has held up despite several shocks in recent years, they add. (elena.vardon@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 24, 2025 12:34 ET (16:34 GMT)

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