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

1856 ET - Downer's 1H underlying profit and FY26 guidance is ahead of expectations, says RBC Capital Markets in a note. Underlying profit--adjusted for amortization, or Npata--of A$136.1 million beats RBC's estimate of A$132 million and consensus of A$129 million, the broker says. Annual profit guidance of A$295 million-A$315 million compares to RBC's forecast of A$293 million and consensus of A$300 million. Downer also reports a "meaningful step up" in work in hand, which rises by 8.9%, the broker says. RBC has an outperform rating and A$8.75 target on the stock. Downer's share rise 3.2% to A$7.98. (rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com; @RhiannonHoyle)

1856 ET - Macquarie is intrigued by Santos's strategic review of its domestic assets. Santos is preparing to bring online its Pikka Phase 1 project in Alaska just a few months after starting up the Barossa natural-gas project in Australia. "As Barossa and Pikka enter service, Santos will need to consider whether its legacy domestic assets are still useful in the portfolio (or dilutive of margins, returns and management time)," Macquarie says. It will need to decide whether to "sweat, divest or invest" in them, the bank says. Examples include Santos's Cooper Basin, Varanus Island, Devil Creek and Narrabri assets. Macquarie, which rates Santos at outperform, suspects the review may involve a reassessment of mature end-of-life assets in Western Australia. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

1846 ET - Dexus's intention to buy back up to 10% of stock would push its look-through gearing up to 42%. So, the buyback plan signals conviction at the Australian property company's ability to sell assets, suggests Macquarie. "Asset sales/capital inflows of more than A$1.7 billion would be required to maintain look-through gearing below 35%," Macquarie says. "Ideally, this would be to third-party capital, allowing Dexus to retain management." It estimates repurchasing the full 10% of stock would boost funds from operations by up to 5%. Macquarie has an outperform call on Dexus. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

1846 ET - Japanese stocks may get a lift from overnight tech stock gains on Wall Street and fears easing about the disruption caused by artificial intelligence. Nikkei futures are up 0.6% at 57580 on the SGX. USD/JPY is at 154.76, compared with 153.44 as of Wednesday's Tokyo stock market close. Investors are focusing on Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's policy steps to support the economy as well as nuclear talks between Iran and the U.S. The Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.0% to 57143.84 on Wednesday. (kosaku.narioka@wsj.com)

1843 ET - Macquarie is becoming increasingly confident that FY 2026 will be the start of a multi-year period of stronger earnings growth by homebuilder Mirvac. It points to A$100 million of additional net operating income from development completions. Mirvac has A$2.3 billion of secured funds under management and Macquarie highlights a A$4 billion committed pipeline of commercial developments. On top of this, the company has A$1.6 billion of residential pre-sales and has a record of keeping a tight rein on costs. "This is reflected in our funds from operations FY 2026-2029 compound annual growth rate of 6.8%," says Macquarie. It rates Mirvac at outperform. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

1842 ET - Zip's 1H U.S. growth looks softer than expected at UBS. December-half earnings were about 3% lower than expected by the investment bank's analysts. They say in a note that is due to lower-than-expected customer growth in the U.S., where a tally of 4.63 million active customers is about 3% short of where they thought it would be. This drove a 2% miss on total transaction value in the country, they add. On a positive note, they add that growth in per-customer spending remains resilient. UBS has a last-published buy rating and A$5.20 target price on the stock, which is down 35% at A$1.835. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)

1834 ET - Brambles' bull at RBC Capital Markets calls out strong cost control as a highlight of the global pallet supplier's positive first-half result. Analyst Owen Birrell uses a note to clients to flag the Australia-listed company's December-half margin expansion, which was driven by supply chain efficiencies and overhead improvements. This has helped Brambles operate in a softer demand environment, which Birrell observes has been confirmed by the company in the U.S., Europe and Latin America. Positively, he adds that new business growth should offset this like-for-like softness. RBC has a last-published outperform rating and A$28.50 target price on the stock, which is up 4.9% at A$24.65. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)

1827 ET - Brambles' bull at Citi sees high quality in the pallet supplier's first-half result. The overall result was in line with expectations but analyst Samuel Seow points to strong levels of new customer wins and strong margins despite softer like-for-like demand. He tells clients in a note that the second-half margin beat implied by the first-half result is likely to continue into the 2027 fiscal year. Brambles still has room to maneuver on both overheads and pooling provisions, he adds. Citi has a last-published "buy" rating and A$26.75 target price on the stock, which is up 4.7%, at A$24.60. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)

1744 ET - When Nvidia releases its 4Q earnings next week, investors will be looking for signs that the company has visibility into its future revenue, Deutsche Bank analysts write in a note. "We expect investors to remain focused on longer-term revenue sustainability metrics such as the magnitude of NVDA's cumulative revenue visibility through the remainder of 2026," they write, adding that they plan to ask about the magnitude and certainty of the company's agreements with OpenAI, Anthropic, and CoreWeave, and how those agreements factor in to the outlook. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1722 ET - Investors will be watching for Nvidia executives to give updates on the company's efforts to sell H200 chips to China when the semiconductor company releases its earnings next week, Deutsche Bank analysts write in a note. The company has been engaged in a back-and-forth with the Trump administration over the terms of the sale, telling administration officials that proposed rules around chip exports to China are too strict, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month. The sale, "if cleared by both countries, would likely provide significant revenue upside," they write, noting CEO Jensen Huang's estimate that the Chinese AI chip market is around $50 billion with a projected 50% compound annual growth rate. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1718 ET - Nvidia's newly announced partnership with Meta is reinforces the long-term structural alignment between the two companies, Stifel analysts say. The collaboration represents the first large-scale Grace CPU-only deployment, which the companies plan to support with infrastructure co-design and software investments, the analysts say. Meta will also be adopting Nvidia's confidential computing, initially for WhatsApp private processing and later expanded across other use cases, the analysts say. The analysts think this will also help Nvidia evolve from a chip to systems to AI platform solutions provider. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)

1604 ET - U.S. stocks climb behind broad gains in the energy and consumer discretionary sectors and a rebound in big technology companies. Nvidia gains 1.6% after it reached a big AI chip deal with Meta Platforms. Analog Devices rises 2.6% on better-than-forecast quarterly results and guidance. Energy shares get a lift from a 4.6% jump in oil prices on concerns the U.S. could take military action against Iran. Meanwhile, minutes from the January FOMC meeting show Fed officials signaled little appetite for reducing interest rates. DJIA gains 129 points, or 0.3%, to 49662, the S&P 500 rises 0.6% to 6881 and the Nasdaq climbs 0.8% to 22753. (patrick.sullivan@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 18, 2026 18:56 ET (23:56 GMT)

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