The latest Market Talks covering Financial Services. Exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.

0824 GMT - European indexes ride a boost in market sentiment at the opening bell, tracking Asian and U.S. peers higher. Positive earnings for financials HSBC and St James's Place see the pair rise 5.5% and 4.5%, respectively, helping the FTSE 100 gain 0.8%. Banks recovering from declines Tuesday boost the Italian FTSE MIB up 0.7%, while the same dynamic nudges the IBEX 35 up 0.5% in Madrid. Construction group Acciona--up 3.5%--leads the Spanish index. Energy stocks and banks lift the DAX 0.2%--Siemens Energy gains 2.5% while Commerzbank climbs 2.25%--while Societe Generale leads the CAC 40 up 0.3%, even as Pernod Ricard drops 3.6%.(josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)

0750 GMT - Banco Santander's plans to keep a lid on costs and distribute profits to shareholders will be front and center at the bank's investor day in London, RBC Capital Markets says in a research note. The Spanish lender outlined its targets through 2028. "We think the focus for investors today will be on cost control and the potential for excess capital distributions at the end of the plan," analyst Benjamin Toms says. Santander recently struck deals to gain scale in geographies where it delivered sub-optimal returns. The next leg of its story will rely on its actions to cut costs and leverage technology, he adds. (elena.vardon@wsj.com)

0620 GMT - HSBC reported a better-than-expected quarter on strength in net interest income and wealth, leading it to issue guidance ahead of consensus, Jefferies says in a note. The global bank's robust beat, which was driven by deposit growth and higher rates in Hong Kong, and visibility from the structural hedge, gives management the conviction to guide for at least $45 billion in net interest income for 2026, analysts write. This is $1.5 billion higher than expectations and implies single-digit upside to consensus, they add. Guidance for its annual costs implies a $33.8 billion cost base that beats estimates. "We suspect investors will probe the 1% increase in costs in-light of the competitive environment + necessary AI investments etc." (elena.vardon@wsj.com)

0408 GMT - United Overseas Bank's capital management could be boosted if it sells some noncore assets, Macquarie Capital's Jayden Vantarakis says in a note. The bank's 4Q common equity Tier 1 ratio, which measures high-quality capital as a share of risk-weighted assets, stood at 14.9%, he notes. The Singapore lender confirmed a review of its asset-management arm is under way, which could raise further capital, he adds. Sales of noncore investments, such as its stake in brokerage UOB Kay Hian, could also contribute, he says. The analyst trims his 2026-2027 projected EPS by less than 2% to reflect potentially lower fees and higher net interest income. Macquarie Capital maintains its outperform rating and S$41.00 target price. Shares fall 0.4% to S$37.05. (megan.cheah@wsj.com)

0328 GMT - United Overseas Bank's rebounding earnings likely aren't enough to lift dividend yields, says RHB Research in a note. UOB's 2025 results met estimates and its 2026 outlook was largely retained, which suggests a modest operating backdrop ahead, RHB says. While credit costs are likely to normalize and lead to a decent earnings rebound, RHB estimates that the Singapore lender's dividend yield will still be around 100 basis points lower than the sector-leading yield of 5.5%. Still, UOB's decent valuation fairly reflects its asset quality risks and lower provision coverage level compared with its peers. RHB raises its target price on UOB to S$39.50 from S$36.10 and retains a neutral rating. Shares fall 0.4% to S$37.05. (megan.cheah@wsj.com)

0052 GMT - The remainder of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.'s S$2.5 billion capital return plan announced last year is likely to be done through dividends rather than share buybacks, says Citi analyst Tan Yong Hong in a note. The Singapore lender has committed to completing this plan by 2026, which implies around S$225 million worth of shares will be canceled while the remaining amount will be returned through dividends, he says.This could result in a 60% dividend payout ratio in 2026, which is higher than the 50% the lender has guided for, he says. Tan expects shares to rise on this potentially higher dividend payout ratio and the bank's 4Q result beating expectations. Citi has a buy rating and S$24.50 target price on OCBC, which was last at S$21.43.(megan.cheah@wsj.com)

1702 GMT - Shares in European banks sell off under a trio of pressures, Federated Hermes analyst Filippo Alloatti says. Investors are concerned about banks' lending to software companies and the competition threat AI poses directly to banks' operations. Moreover, some traders will be profit-taking following banks' strong run so far this year, Alloatti says. Banks active in both commercial and investment banking--like Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and UBS--are most likely most exposed to software and credit risks, Alloatti says. If loans to private credit funds or loans direct to software companies turn sour, banks will be left holding devalued assets. A basket of European banking stocks closed down 1.7%. BNP Paribas fell 1.4% while Deutsche dropped 1.7%. UBS closed 1.3% lower. (josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)

1510 GMT - Nearly 40,000 home-sale agreements nationwide were canceled in January, Redfin says. That's equal to 13.7% of homes that went under contract that month, and up from 13.1% a year earlier. Sales are falling through at a higher rate than in the past largely because it's a buyer's market, with hundreds of thousands more U.S. home sellers than buyers. That gives buyers negotiating power, allowing them to back out during the inspection period if they see a home they like better or an inspection issue arises. While housing costs have come down from their peak, they are still near historic highs. (chris.wack@wsj.com)

1501 GMT - Advancements in large language models are accelerating entrepreneurship by making the building of apps and code easier, Stripe says in its annual shareholder letter. The number of iOS apps released in December rose 60% year-over-year, while code-writing platform GitHub saw its uploads jump 41% between the third quarters of 2024 and of 2025. "Our best guess is that the 2025 acceleration is the start of a larger inflection in entrepreneurship and creativity facilitated by advances in large language models," Stripe says. The company says it is aiming to allow more simple integrations with AI coding tools. "We have an ambitious roadmap of improvements planned," it says. (nicholas.miller@wsj.com)

1457 GMT - Stripe is seeing more successful and high-growth businesses join its platform, the company says in its annual shareholder letter. In 2025, a record number of new companies joined Stripe, the payment processing platform says. "This new cohort is by far the highest performing and fastest moving we've ever seen, growing around 50% faster than the 2024 cohort," Stripe says. The number of companies reaching $10 million annual recurring revenue within three months of launch was double the 2024 count. The company says the growth is part of a larger "expansion and acceleration" boosted with the help of AI coding tools.(nicholas.miller@wsj.com)

1409 GMT - Stablecoin volumes are no longer tracking crypto asset prices and are instead becoming a critical part of business-to-business financial infrastructure, Stripe says in its annual shareholder letter. A series of new tech capabilities are allowing stablecoins to be used widely and easily and stablecoin payment volume doubled in 2025 even as Bitcoin prices fell. But today's blockchains cannot support the growing number of stablecoin transactions, especially as agentic commerce takes hold. "Agents will most likely soon be responsible for most internet transactions, and we will likely need blockchains that support more than one million or even one billion transactions per second," Stripe says. (nicholas.miller@wsj.com)

1400 GMT - Companies are no longer expanding country-by-country and are instead making their revenue base global immediately, Stripe says in its annual shareholder letter. Tech infrastructure is allowing companies to localize their offerings and customer experiences, the payment processing platform says. It adds that among Stripe businesses with mostly international revenue, 30% of that revenue comes from countries that are neither their home market nor one of the top 10 global economies. Even fintechs, which have previously been constrained by financial geography barriers, are going international quickly. Now, stablecoins allow fintechs to set up "infrastructure that works everywhere," Stripe says. "Global-by-default financial services are, for the first time, a real possibility." (nicholas.miller@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 25, 2026 04:20 ET (09:20 GMT)

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