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

2135 ET - Atlas Arteria's new bull at Macquarie sees value in the toll-road operator despite negative traffic trends. Raising their recommendation to outperform from neutral, an analyst at the investment bank tells clients in a note that the 2.2% drop in traffic for July and August was in line with expectations, given slowing manufacturing activity and soft consumer confidence. They concede that the operating environment in France is tough and that dividends will likely be lower in 2027, but point to several positives. They see only limited sensitivity to interest-rate moves, little value being ascribed to concession extensions, and an 8.7% yield. Macquarie trims its target price 3.1% to 4.75 Australian dollars. Shares are up 0.7% at A$4.47. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)

2128 ET - Chinese manufacturers' expanding scale and deeper supply-chain integration are raising the competitive bar for Malaysian glove makers, Public Investment Bank analyst Hailey Chung says in a note. Intco Medical is increasingly setting the benchmark for pricing and operational efficiency. While recent increases in Chinese glove average selling prices have allowed Malaysian manufacturers to raise prices, their structural cost disadvantage continues to weigh on competitiveness. Specialty gloves could offer higher margins, but increasing competition may limit pricing power, she reckons. Malaysian players could face further market-share erosion if they continue to compete mainly on volume and price, highlighting the need for greater innovation and product differentiation to defend margins, she adds. Public IB downgrades the Malaysian rubber glove sector to underweight from neutral. (yingxian.wong@wsj.com)

2121 ET - Reliance Worldwide loses its bull at Macquarie, with Brookfield's binding offer for the plumbing supplies maker locking in value. Lowering their recommendation to neutral from outperform, one of the investment bank's analysts tells clients that most of the deal value is captured by the stock at current levels. The analyst writes in a note that there is still scope for a superior proposal from a rival suitor. That would most likely be a strategic buyer interested in synergies, they add. Macquarie has an unchanged target price of 4.75 Australian dollars on the stock. Shares are up 1.0% at A$4.525. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)

2107 ET - Eco-Shop Marketing's product affordability and broad appeal to consumers should keep sales momentum stable in FY 2027, Maybank IB analyst Jade Tam says in a note. Store traffic and sales volumes could benefit from more cost-conscious consumers down trading, she says. Same-store sales growth is forecast at 5% in FY 2027, she says. However, rising product, freight, logistics and labor costs could pressure margins if the company is unable to fully pass on higher costs to consumers, she adds. Tam cuts Eco-Shop's FY 2027-FY 2029 earnings forecasts by 1%-10% to factor in lower gross profit margins and higher operating costs. Maybank lowers Eco-Shop's target price to 1.60 ringgit from 1.70 ringgit, while maintaining a buy rating on the stock. Shares are unchanged at 1.45 ringgit.(yingxian.wong@wsj.com)

2106 ET - Infratil's bull at Jefferies calls out upgraded growth ambitions at its partially owned U.S. renewable energy developer as the biggest surprise of the infrastructure investor's investor day. Analyst Roger Samuel thinks that rising power-purchase agreement prices probably prompted dual-listed Infratil to upgrade its target operating fleet at Boston-based Longroad to 14.3 gigawatts from 11.5 GW. However, he tells clients in a note that there are few details regarding Infratil's contention that 5 GW of its 10 GW data center-related opportunity is immediately actionable. Jefferies keeps a buy rating on the stock and raises its target price on Infratil's Australia-listed shares by 1.4% to 15.00 Australian dollars. Shares are up 0.8% at A$11.41. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)

2058 ET - U.S. interest rates are likely to remain elevated going into 2027, says J.P. Morgan Asset Management's Tai Hui in a note. While forecasts from Federal Open Market Committee members didn't change much at the Federal Reserve's September meeting, the updated median projection implies one more increase by the year-end, says the strategist. The Fed remaining hawkish going into 2027 could prompt investors to reassess asset valuations, particularly those of relatively expensive technology stocks that could be sensitive to interest-rate movements, he says. A catalyst to extend the equity bull market therefore looks unlikely in the foreseeable future, he says. Still, the possibility of the U.S. policy rate returning to above 5.0% remains limited, he adds. (megan.cheah@wsj.com)

2015 ET - Japanese stocks are higher, supported by bargain-hunting, as recent rising momentum in crude oil eases. Pharmaceutical and machinery stocks are leading gains. Eisai is up 2.4% and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is 3.2% higher. The dollar is at 155.87 yen, up from Y155.10 as of Wednesday's Tokyo stock market close, following the Fed's rate increase overnight. Investors are focusing on bond yields and crude oil prices. The Nikkei Stock Average is up 1.0% at 64548.75. (kosaku.narioka@wsj.com; @kosakunarioka)

1944 ET - Japanese stocks may be supported by bargain-hunting following their recent declines. Nikkei futures are up 0.7% at 64305 on the SGX. Investors may remain cautious ahead of the Bank of Japan's two-day policy meeting starting Thursday. The dollar is at 156.14 yen, up from Y155.10 as of Wednesday's Tokyo stock market close, following the Fed's rate increase overnight. Investors are focusing on bond yields and crude oil prices. The Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.7% to 63923.00 on Wednesday. (kosaku.narioka@wsj.com)

1847 ET - Australian stocks look set to drop at the open after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since 2023. Local equity futures are down by 0.8% ahead of Thursday's session, suggesting that the S&P/ASX 200 will follow U.S. indices lower amid growing expectations that the Fed will raise rates at least once more in 2026. The DJIA fell 1.2%, the S&P 500 lost 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite edged less than 0.1% lower. The ASX 200 is coming off a 0.3% rise but the benchmark index is still down by 4.2% so far this month as investors prepare for higher rates at home and overseas. Flight Centre and South32 are among Australian stocks set to trade ex-dividend. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)

1703 ET - Boeing's production ramp of 737 MAX aircraft is "taking us a little bit longer than what I had anticipated," CEO Kelly Ortberg says at the Morgan Stanley Laguna Industrials Conference. "The area we're constrained right now is in our wings production," he says, adding that Boeing has plans to address the bottleneck. The company has hit its goal of producing 47 of the aircraft a month, but is working on stabilizing at that rate before moving on to a more ambitious target of 52 a month, Ortberg says. He adds that the production for 787 aircraft has taken longer than hoped, as engine delivery has bottlenecked deliveries. Boeing shares closed down 3.7% at $201.96. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1621 ET - A higher federal funds rate today is the medicine that the housing market needs to recover tomorrow, Zillow's Mischa Fisher says in a note. Mortgage rates are more likely to come down next year if the market has greater confidence that inflation is getting under control, Fisher says. Unfortunately, it will still be a tough end of the year for home sales until then, she says. The recent run-up in rates is hitting an already slow housing market, where sales volume has started to decline year-over-year from an already low baseline, Fisher says. (dean.seal@wsj.com)

1528 ET - Q/C Technologies shares mostly rebounded from a 67% drop Monday and a 52-week low Tuesday, more than doubling late Wednesday. The optical-computing company late Friday disclosed that consulting agreements with an entity affiliated with Martin Shkreli and with OpenAI scientist Chelsea Voss were mutually terminated. Voss also resigned from the board. Earlier Wednesday, adviser James Altucher posted on X about the company's AI-powered platform for chip design, which coincided with an intraday peak in the company's share price. Shares were recently at $1.06, up 139%, amid very volatile trading and still below Friday's close of $1.71.