The latest Market Talks covering Technology, Media and Telecom. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.

1540 ET - Palantir Technologies has a lot of room for growth despite its stock falling in recent months, Mizuho analysts say, upgrading the stock to outperform from neutral. The analysts say Palantir's U.S. commercial momentum is surging, now making up 36% of revenue, up 10 percentage points from the year before. Its government business is also strong, with sales in that segment accelerating to 66% year-over-year in the fourth quarter. Palantir stands out because it is one of the few companies to already have a positive estimate revision this year, the analysts say. Shares rise 2%, but are still down 24% since the start of the year. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)

1356 ET - Shopify's prospects aren't undermined by recent AI jitters that sent software stocks tumbling, according to Truist. In a report, analysts Terry Tillman and Connor Passarella say that the recent "large drawdown in software valuations related to AI fears has created attractive buying opportunity for long-term investors in Shopify." The stock is down 23% year-to-date, despite a 9% rise Wednesday. But the analysts say the company's "drivers such as international, payments, enterprise, B2B, and now agentic commerce, can sustain one of the best profitable growth profiles at scale in software and agentic AI." Truist upgrades Shopify to buy from hold, and raises the price target to $150 from $110. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)

1237 ET - Palo Alto Networks' F2Q results were made noisy by earlier-than-anticipated closures of the Chronosphere and CyberArk acquisitions, Stifel says in a note. While Palo Alto shares are sliding, the analysts say that stripping out the noise they remain bullish on both the acquisitions and the strength of the company's core portfolio. "Net/net, when taking a step back on the print, we come away confident in our broader thesis around Palo being a well-positioned cybersecurity platform consolidator with a number of drivers to sustain double-digit organic top-line growth and improving profitability in the coming years." Palo Alto sinks 5.4%.(elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1225 ET - Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says the drop in bitcoin prices is more psychologically-driven than anything else, writing off "Monday morning quarterback-type theories" about Kevin Warsh's appointment as Federal Reserve chair or the threat of quantum computing to blockchain technologies. "People say, 'I don't think there's any substantive issue, but I think other people do,' and they'll want to lock in gains and move it up and down," he says in a CNBC interview at the World Liberty Forum in Mar-a-Lago. He adds that the down market is probably transitory, saying that Coinbase has been repurchasing shares and buying more bitcoins while prices are low. "Crypto, sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down," he says. "Bitcoin is still the best-performing asset of the last decade. We try not to take a short-term point of view on that."(elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1222 ET - Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is confident in a deal to pass the Clarity Act, a landmark crypto regulation bill that was delayed after Armstrong pulled his support amid a fight with banks over rewards for stablecoins. "There's now a path forward, where we can get a win-win-win outcome here," Armstrong says in a CNBC interview at the World Liberty Forum in Mar-a-Lago. "A win for the crypto industry, a win for the banks, and a win for the American consumer, to get President Trump's crypto agenda through to the finish line." He says the bill is moving forward with stablecoin rewards in place, adding that there's a "small list" of unresolved items in the bill. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R., Ohio) adds that he expects the bill to be passed by April. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1213 ET - Palo Alto Networks' "platformization" strategy of uniting its product suite into a single integrated platform is the right move as artificial-intelligence amplifies cyber threats, Wedbush analysts write in a note. Though the stock was hit by the broader software sell-off in recent weeks over AI displacement fears, the analysts write that AI allows for faster, larger, and more advanced cyberattacks than legacy tools are equipped to handle. "This has reinforced the need for AI-native, integrated security platforms rather than fragmented point solutions which is further increasing demand for the PANW platform as AI is increasing PANW's value proposition, not displacing it," they write. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1136 ET - Palo Alto Networks' stock price decline after its 2Q print reflects lowered free cash flow expectations for 2026, as well as guidance that the acquisitions of CyberArk and Chronosphere are adding just about $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue compared to a nearly $30 billion capital outlay, Raymond James analysts write in a note. "This was essentially a levered bet on software right ahead of a significant meltdown in valuations," they write. Still, Palo Alto's effective capital outlay was closer to $20 billion due to the broader decline in software stocks, and they see cybersecurity as more insulated from AI displacement than other SaaS businesses. "Our proprietary checks have been positive on the strategic merits of the CyberArk acquisition in particular," they add. "We intend to let the dust settle." Shares fall 6.1%. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

0720 ET - The big technology companies continue to have low credit risk for now, even as their debt supply rises, Swissquote's Ipek Ozkardeskaya says in a note. Demand for their corporate bonds is strong because "investors still view these companies as extremely high-quality borrowers with very low default risk", Ozkardeskaya says. The supportive credit market environment could limit any selloff in equities, she says. (miriam.mukuru@wsj.com)

0641 ET - Shares in New York Times Co. climb 3.35% premarket after a regulatory filing showed Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought 5 million shares in the publisher. The stake is worth around $375 million, with Berkshire's investment representing one of the last decisions taken under the leadership of now-departed chief executive Buffett. New York Times hit a one-year high in after-hours trading following the disclosure. (josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)

0543 ET - Nvidia shares gain 1.8% premarket after Meta Platforms said it would purchase millions of the chip maker's Blackwell and Rubin GPUs. The new deal is worth tens of billions of dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported. Meta's decision to deepen its ties with Nvidia comes after reports that the Facebook owner was considering using rival Google's chips. Nvidia's premarket bump comes after a tepid start to 2026 for the AI bellwether, with shares in the company down 0.8% so far this year. Meta gains 0.7% premarket. Google-owner Alphabet nudges up 0.7%.(josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)

0345 ET - The "best and final" takeover bid for BlueScope Steel from Steel Dynamics and SGH still materially undervalues the Australian steelmaker's non-U.S. assets, Jefferies says in a note. The latest A$15 billion proposal implies a value of A$4.1 billion for BlueScope's assets outside the U.S., the bank says. Yet there is significant value in BlueScope's land--which Jefferies estimates at around A$1.5 billion--and in other assets that SGH would likely look to sell, it says. "Despite the bid still materially undervaluing BSL, the board now faces a tricky road to convince [shareholders] it can extract further value independently," says Jefferies. BlueScope ended 2.6% higher at A$28.74. (rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com; @RhiannonHoyle)

0323 ET - Bitcoin edges higher along with other cryptocurrencies after tech stocks paused their recent falls to allow major U.S. stocks indexes to close with slight gains overnight. However, the cryptocurrency's gains are modest as investors are awaiting more clarity from upcoming U.S. economic data before taking larger directional positions, Saxo Bank analysts say in a note. The main drivers in the near-term are the Federal Reserve's meeting minutes at 1900 GMT and Friday's U.S. PCE inflation data, they say. "Together, these releases can shift expectations around interest rates quickly." Bitcoin rises 0.8% to $68,183, LSEG data show. Ether climbs 0.9% to $2,017. (renae.dyer@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 18, 2026 16:50 ET (21:50 GMT)

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