The latest Market Talks covering the Auto and Transport sector. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.

1506 ET - Airlines have raised ticket prices to cover surging jet fuel costs at the fastest rate that United's Scott Kirby has ever seen, the CEO says at the JPMorgan Industrials Conference. Booked yields, which are effectively proxies for average flight prices, are running up 15% to 20% in the past week, Kirby says. The higher prices don't seem likely to turn away customers, given that airfares have lagged behind general inflation for years, he says. "I don't think that's going to happen unless the economy really gets hurt," Kirby says. ( dean.seal@wsj.com )

1431 ET - Canada's defense and space-technology companies are being pulled into a global upswing of military spending, with demand increasingly shaping forecasts and strategies. Kraken Robotics is benefiting from a surge in subsea-surveillance and robotics orders, while Telesat and MDA Space are seeing stronger pipelines tied to space-based communications, Earth observation and intelligence systems. Together, these trends are creating unusually large backlogs across the sector, with MDA Space recently announcing its pipeline of opportunities doubled to C$40 billion, much of it in defense. Investor enthusiasm has followed, and shares of these Canadian defense names have rallied sharply over recent quarters, reflecting a broader shift that began as geopolitical tensions escalated in Ukraine and the Middle East. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)

1240 ET - The deployment of Waymo and Tesla robotaxis in Austin, Texas doesn't seem to be eating into demand for traditional ride-hailing, KeyBanc analysts say in a note, citing discussions with Uber drivers during a recent visit. "Right now, Uber drivers are not seeing any impact from Waymo or Tesla with respect to ride volume or pricing," the analysts say. "We believe this supports the argument that AVs are currently driving incremental rides and expanding the TAM." They note that both Waymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet, and Tesla have expanded their fleets recently, and that data suggest Waymo makes up more than 20% of Uber rides in service areas. "We believe there has been sufficient fleet growth to suggest drivers would have felt some impact by now if rides were being cannibalized," they say. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1135 ET - In the robotaxi market, Uber is already acting as a winner, Deutsche Bank analysts write in a note, following the company announcing a string of new autonomous vehicle partnerships culminating in an expanded partnership with Nvidia. The expanded Nvidia deal and Uber's deal with Amazon-owned Zoox last week both feature better economic terms for Uber compared to its earlier pilot programs, the analysts write, with the deals becoming more accretive to the company's margins. "Uber is no longer negotiating from a position of trying to prove its network's viability; it is negotiating as the definitive global market leader," the analysts write. Uber is up 4.8%. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1126 ET - Nvidia's expanded autonomous driving partnership with Uber -- and its concurrent partnerships with automakers -- throws cold water on bears' views that the ride-hailing platform will struggle to compete with scaled autonomous vehicle makers like Tesla, Deutsche Bank analysts write in a note. The myriad AV partnerships "support our core thesis: the AV hardware supply base is fragmenting," the analysts write. "Uber stands at the center of this fragmented supply chain as the indispensable demand aggregator. We view this announcement as a major fundamental de-risking event that reinforces the durability of Uber's long-term terminal value in an autonomous future." Uber gains 5.1%. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1059 ET - Nvidia expands its autonomous driving technology partnerships with automakers including Hyundai Motor, Kia, BYD, Geely, Isuzu, and Nissan. BYD, Geely, and Nissan -- the latter in partnership with self-driving startup Wayve -- will deploy the Nvidia DRIVE Hyperion autonomous driving architecture for fully-self-driving programs, while Isuzu is developing a fully-self-driving bus using the technology. Hyundai, a majority owner of autonomous vehicle maker Motional, says it will continue discussions with Nvidia working toward fully-self-driving robotaxi capabilities. It will use the Hyperion platform to build an integrated autonomous driving architecture and a data cycle of continuous improvement, it says. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1026 ET - Nvidia and Uber Technologies are expanding their partnership to launch a global fleet of robotaxis using the Nvidia Drive Hyperion autonomous vehicle platform. The companies and their automaker partners will begin launching vehicles in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the first half of next year before expanding to 28 cities across Europe, Australia, Asia, and North America by 2028. The vehicles will also use Nvidia's Alpamayo, an artificial-intelligence model designed to handle complex driving scenarios. The launch will begin with data-collection vehicles to train Alpamayo, then transition to deployments using human operators before moving to fully-driverless cars. Uber is up 5.1%. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

0820 ET - Delta Air Lines, JetBlue and Frontier Airlines all say demand remains strong, offsetting higher fuel costs and operational disruptions. Healthy demand prompted Delta to raise its 1Q revenue target, and JetBlue and Frontier similarity raised their unit revenue outlooks for the period. The airlines all warn that fuel prices are climbing, though, and some say winter storms disrupted operations during the recent quarter. Airlines tend to hold about two weeks of fuel inventory, UBS analysts say in a research note, cushioning the drag to earnings during the recent quarter. Beyond 1Q, the impact remains a big unknown. "We expect airlines to suspend FY26 outlook given the significant uncertainty around fuel costs for the rest of the year," the analysts write. Delta says it is well positioned to navigate the current environment, whereas Frontier says its FY guidance is under review. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

0541 ET - NIO's cost control benefits will continue materializing in the coming quarters, increasing the likelihood of an upside surprise in operating profit and easing investor concerns over persistent net losses and cash burn, DBS analysts say. The company's cost reduction efforts are showing tangible results, with 4Q 2025 research and development expenses declining 44%, showing progress from management's recent corporate restructuring and workforce streamlining, they say, noting the company's newly launched models ES8 and ONVO L90 have shown improved sales momentum. If upcoming 2026 models replicate this success, it could trigger a fresh re-rating for the stock. DBS upgrades the stock's rating to buy and lifts the target price to HK$60 from HK$52. (jiahui.huang@wsj.com; @ivy_jiahuihuang)

0448 ET - The Middle East conflict is causing the largest oil supply shock on record, with refined products rallying more sharply than crude, Goldman Sachs says. The impact is driven by three main channels: disruptions to Persian Gulf refined product exports, which heavily affect Asia's naphtha and Europe's jet fuel; refinery outages; and reduced medium- and heavy-crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz, limiting global production of diesel, jet fuel, and fuel oil. Rising freight rates, higher natural gas costs, and trade restrictions could push prices even higher, the bank's analysts add. (giulia.petroni@wsj.com)

0357 ET - Investors in Frankfurt Airport will want to know the impact on performance from the war in the Middle East, JPMorgan analysts write. Fraport said it expects Ebitda to rise to 1.5 billion euros this year from 1.44 billion euros in 2025 amid higher passenger traffic. But this guidance doesn't include the effects of conflict in Iran and the Persian Gulf, JPM notes. "We expect this to be a focus ... among investors," the bank says. (joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby)

0355 ET - European natural-gas prices climb in early trading, with the benchmark Dutch TTF front-month contract up 2.2% to 52 euros a megawatt-hour. Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is expected to remain minimal until early April, while LNG production in Qatar and the UAE is projected to return to full capacity gradually by the second half of May, according to analysts at Rystad Energy. "Disruptions to Middle Eastern LNG supply have shifted price formation toward Asia, where more than 85% of Qatar and UAE LNG volumes were delivered in 2025," says Kaushal Ramesh, vice president of gas and LNG research. "Europe is expected to require an additional 18 million tonnes of LNG year-on-year in 2026, meaning TTF prices will largely be determined by a no-arbitrage condition." No-arbitrage means European gas prices rise to match what buyers are paying in Asia. (giulia.petroni@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 17, 2026 16:50 ET (20:50 GMT)

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