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

1807 ET - Oracle doesn't know when it will return to generating positive free cash flow. "We haven't given a particular time frame on that yet, and we don't expect to give that today," CFO Hilary Maxson says on a call with analysts Thursday. "What I would say, though, is that each of the projects that we're doing, by nature, is a strong free cash flow generating project," she continues. By that logic, Maxson expects Oracle's current projects to generate positive free cash flows "very shortly after" they ramp up. Oracle shares are up 4.5%, after the company posts sharply higher fiscal 1Q profit and revenue. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1722 ET - Australian stocks are poised to begin another day in the red after U.S. stocks fell for the fourth straight session. ASX futures are down by 0.9% ahead of Friday's open, suggesting that the S&P/ASX 200 will build on losses that total 2.1% week to date. Weakness for U.S. equities came as Treasury yields hit multiyear highs and U.S. oil prices topped US$100 a barrel.(rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com; @RhiannonHoyle)

1646 ET - Oracle's capital expenditures more than tripled during the latest quarter, ballooning to $28.49 billion from $8.5 billion a year earlier. The sharply higher CapEx resulted in free cash flow of negative $5.4 billion. For the year, the software and cloud-computing company continues to anticipate CapEx of $90 billion to $95 billion. Investors, who have started to question the sustainability of AI-spending commitments from tech companies, don't seem to mind the elevated spending levels, given that both Oracle's profit and revenue were sharply higher in F1Q. Shares are up 7.2% in after-hours trading. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1629 ET - Oracle's cloud-infrastructure business is showing no signs of slowing, reporting revenue of $7.4 billion during the latest quarter, up 121% from a year ago. Chief Financial Officer Hilary Maxson attributes the increase to strong execution, as the company brought 850 megawatts of capacity online in F1Q. She adds that Oracle continues to see strong demand for its compute and database services. Gains across the company's cloud business helped offset revenue from the company's software unit, which fell 3% as customers continue to migrate from on-premises software to the cloud. Total revenue grew 30%, beating Wall Street estimates. Shares rise 7% in after-hours trading. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1437 ET - The days of the capital-light software company are over, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says at a Goldman Sachs conference. Call it capital expenditures or operating expenses, but every so-called "AI-native" company has got to pay for computing power, Huang says, noting that in the last six months, $400 billion of venture capital funding has been channelled toward AI-native firms. "The definition of AI-native is somebody who spends two-thirds of their raised money on compute," Huang says. "We're working with just about every AI startup in the world. We have the whole platform, we have offtake, they bring the regional land, power and shell, and we work with them to stand that up." (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1404 ET - August saw the average transaction price for a new vehicle in the U.S. move back above $50,000, to $50,089, according to Kelley Blue Book. It was the first time the ATP topped $50,000 since December. Prices were influenced by a richer mix of midsize SUV sales and higher prices for subcompact SUVs and compact cars, Kelley says. August also saw the ATP for electric vehicles decline to $54,813, 1.2% lower from the prior month and down 2.7% from August 2025. (stephen.nakrosis@wsj.com)

1359 ET - Transat may need to resort to fare cuts to keep its planes full amid a difficult operating environment. In a TD Cowen report, Tim James says "challenging market dynamics and capacity reallocations are pressuring yields more than expected," which could require "more aggressive pricing" to sustain passenger load factors on its planes. A larger-than-usual sequential drop in customer deposits he says suggests "challenging conditions should continue to pressure results through at least Q4/F26." James notes that results were further impacted by unexpected costs, inefficiencies, and revenue drags from eliminating operations in Cuba. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)

1217 ET - Bitcoin is down 1.6% to $77,095, dropping after posting a strong rally over the past three weeks. The cryptocurrency seems unable to stay above the $80K mark, which is now the major psychological threshold it needs to break in order to keep the rally going. The $80K mark is where a spring rally in bitcoin topped off at in early May. "Bulls want to see Bitcoin clear this zone, which could open the door to further upside," says Bret Kenwell of eToro in a note. Ethereum is down 1.3% to $2,440, XRP is down 3.5% to $1.35, and solana slides 3% to $99.49. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)

1201 ET - Groupe Dynamite's real estate strategy of having a presence in the best locations is paying off, says Chief Executive Andrew Lutfy on an earnings call. The executive says that the stores that he categorizes as 'tier 1 though tier 3' represents about 72% of the company's sales, noting that in 2017, it was roughly 28%. Lutfy says that the better-located stores move inventory at a faster clip than lower tier locations. Through this quality real estate strategy, he says "we aren't simply improving the quality of our stores, we are improving the productivity of the entire business." He expects that this will create a higher quality network which raises the performance standards across the broader portfolio. "It's a positive flywheel effect," Lutfy adds. (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)

1149 ET - Canadian grocer Empire faces market share headwinds due to a smaller discount footprint relative to peers in an inflation-weary environment. In an earnings call, CEO Pierre St-Laurent says that the company has maintained its discount market position, but it is aggressively accelerating its format expansion to capture budget-conscious shoppers in the face of "the rapid expansion of discount formats across the market." He notes that in August, Empire opened its first FreshCo discount banner store in Atlantic Canada, alongside new locations in Calgary and Paris, Ontario. The company is also now planning to open 25 new stores in the year instead of 20. St-Laurent says: "as we continue to expand discount footprint, we expect that growth to increasingly support market share gains." (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)

1126 ET -- Dubai leads most major Gulf stocks lower as escalating U.S.-Iran hostilities and attacks on Saudi Arabia keep regional risks elevated. The Dubai Financial Market General Index falls 0.4%, Qatar's QE Index declines 0.3% and Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All Share Index edges down 0.1%. Abu Dhabi's benchmark index bucks the trend, edging up 0.1%, with major constituent ADNOC Gas rising 0.6%. Disruption in the Strait of Hormuz strengthens the case for ADNOC Gas to have export capacity on the U.A.E.'s east coast as the government considers ways to reduce reliance on the waterway, Barclays analyst Ramachandra Kamath says. (farhan.rafid@wsj.com)

1044 ET - Macy's says its shoppers have remained resilient, primarily in higher income cohorts. "Across nameplates, we continue to skew toward middle- and upper-income consumers, where performance remained stronger," Chief Executive Tony Spring says on a call with analysts. Lower-income consumers are more discerning about what they buy, which is in line with previous trends Macy's has reported, Spring says. The wealthier shoppers are responding to Macy's new assortment of products, which includes higher quality materials and more expensive brands, he says.