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

1455 ET - In a restaurant industry that's highly promotional, Cava stands out as a player with broad-based strength across the sector, including geographies and income cohorts--with outsized growth among lower-income customers, according to William Blair in a note. Analysts Sharon Zackfia and Tania Anderson say customers are flocking to the fast-casual Mediterranean chain for its everyday value, helping it post better-than-expected 9% 2Q comparable sales growth, the majority of which came from a traffic boost. Cava has underpriced inflation since 2019, they add. What's more, they say "new unit productivity remains stellar, with new unit sales at or greater than the systemwide average across all geographies, formats, and markets." They say it suggests Cava has the opportunity to become a much larger brand versus its nearly 480 units today. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

1423 ET - Palantir CEO Alex Karp isn't bullish on the prospect of President Trump and President Xi agreeing on shared AI risks. "I would love it if it happened," Karp says on CNBC. "The problem is, we're tight enough as competitors that both sides believe they could win." He adds that a framework of joint U.S.-China control over AI would "change the world." (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1420 ET - Palantir CEO Alex Karp says the real goal of frontier labs such as Anthropic is likely to get the U.S. government to nationalize their businesses to cap their liability from skimming their customers' intellectual property. Karp, in a CNBC interview, says he respects Anthropic head Dario Amodei, but describes the company's philosophy as one of migrating business customers' IP into its AI models. "That model would require severe liability protection, and there's only one institution that can do that: the U.S. government," Karp says. "First, you migrate all the IP to your business, and then, because you need capped liability, both vis-a-vis the business and vis-a-vis the dangers, you've got to migrate the business to the government. It has to be nationalized." (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1313 ET - There needs to be a set of reasonable and enforceable guidelines for increasingly-capable AI models, beginning with liability for the companies that provide them, Palantir CEO Alex Karp says on CNBC. "The first line of defense is, you're liable for your own actions," Karp says. Of the AI companies asking for government intervention, Karp adds, "they're asking for societal regulation to get out of the first line of defense, which is, if you build a technology that can destroy 10% of the world, that has civil and criminal liability attached to it." He adds that regulating AI proves tricky, as many of the people who understand the technology best are on its payroll. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1229 ET - ChatGPT developer OpenAI's selection of Shopify as its debut ecommerce advertising partner eases fears of AI disintermediation, says TD Cowen's John Shao. In a report, the analyst notes a prevalent theme weighing on ecommerce sentiment this year has been of fears of cutting out the middleman. This was made worse for Shopify after META announced its personal AI assistants. However, Shao sees OpenAI's new ad integration as evidence that "Shopify may be becoming more deeply embedded in agentic commerce rather than being bypassed by it." Under the partnership, merchants can manage ChatGPT advertising campaigns directly through the Shopify platform. This sets up Shopify to benefit from "the infrastructure layer underpinning AI-driven commerce rather than being at risk of displacement." (adriano.marchese@wsj.com)

1214 ET - The late-summer rebound in bitcoin hit a wall in trying to stay above the $80k mark, but the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike isn't expected to be the catalyst that holds bitcoin prices back. "We believe yesterday's move was a mid-cycle adjustment, not a cyclical change," says Zack Pandl of Grayscale Research in a note. "And we doubt the one or two rate hikes expected for 2026 will lead to much change in capital allocation." Pandl harkens back to a similar occurrence in March 1997, when Alan Greenspan's Fed "did an analogous one-off hike… and the Nasdaq bull market kept rolling on." Bitcoin is up 0.7% to $76,669. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)

1213 ET - Volvo Car is suffering from intense competition in China, but the Swedish carmaker's chief commercial officer, Erik Severinson, still sees a path for his company to succeed in the world's largest car market in the long run. Sales of premium cars made by Western companies are under pressure in China, while local players are fighting a price war to drive volumes, Severinson says in an interview. "Right now it is very difficult to compete in that market for everyone," he says. Volvo is betting that new models with self-driving and infotainment systems, as well as differentiated interior designs, will make its cars more relevant to Chinese consumers, Severinson says. Volvo Car shares close 0.1% higher. (adria.calatayud@wsj.com)

1210 ET - The rise of China's car industry poses a threat to some European carmakers, but not to the industry as a whole, Volvo Car Chief Commercial Officer Erik Severinson says in an interview. "I don't think it's an existential threat to the automotive industry," Severinson says. "But of course it is an existential threat to companies within that industry." The arrival of Chinese automakers will lead to a deterioration in profit margins for many brands in Europe, but the car industry has always been competitive, Severinson says. The history of the car industry is filled with examples of companies that have gone out of business due to new competition, he adds. Volvo Car shares close 0.1% higher. (adria.calatayud@wsj.com)

1007 ET - Emirates NBD raises its year-end Dubai inflation forecast to 5.6% as elevated oil prices persist for longer than previously expected. Inflation accelerates to 5.5% in August from 5.3% in July, with prices rising 0.3% on month, the bank says. Housing remains the largest contributor to inflation, although price growth in the category has moderated, while higher petrol prices and airfares drove the latest acceleration. (farhan.rafid@wsj.com)

1002 ET - Abu Dhabi leads major Gulf stocks higher, with its benchmark index rising 0.5%. The Dubai Financial Market General Index gains 0.3% and Qatar's QE Index adds 0.2%. The gains come despite a potentially more challenging interest-rate backdrop after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to a 3.75%-4.00% range, the National Bank of Kuwait says. The Fed's projections signal another increase by year-end as inflation remains elevated, while most Gulf central banks followed the move with 25-basis-point increases under their dollar-pegged currency regimes, putting further upward pressure on regional borrowing costs. (farhan.rafid@wsj.com)

0947 ET - Home improvement company Kingfisher is showing sequential improvement despite a weak consumer outlook, Deutsche Bank's Adam Cochrane writes. "With industry data points improving despite the macro overhang we see limited scope for a change to FY guidance at the 1H stage," Cochrane says. Deutsche Bank raises its fiscal 2027 pretax profit forecast 4% to 605 million pounds and has an estimate of 412 million on the metric for the first half. The bank raises its rating on the stock to hold from sell and its target price to 300 pence, from 260 pence. Shares are up 2.5% at 308.20 pence, but down 1.4% over the year to date. (ian.walker@wsj.com)

0833 ET - Wacker Chemie's earnings and return on capital invested could remain very weak due to cyclical and structural pressures, J.P. Morgan analysts write. The German chemicals company is targeting an Ebitda margin of around 15%, a roughly 50% increase to its average over the past three years, and ROIC above 10%. JPM adds that the absence of a clear time frame for the targets to be delivered could disappoint investors and believes there could be significant downside to consensus estimates for 2027 and beyond. JPM has an underweight rating on the stock and a price target of 62 euros. Shares are down 2.7%, trading at 86.25 euros.