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

CoreWeave expects to end the year with upwards of 1.85 gigawatts of active power, up from a previous outlook of 1.7GW, CFO Nitin Agrawal says. That also translates to heavy capital spending, with third-quarter capital expenditures expected between $11.5 billion and $13.5 billion, "based on the significant amount of new capacity we will be delivering to customers," Agrawal says. CoreWeave also lifts its full-year CapEx guidance to between $35 billion and $39 billion. The boosted CapEx guidance doesn't deter investors, with shares up 13% after-hours. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1832 ET - CoreWeave has to be selective with how it distributes its cloud-computing capacity, Chief Financial Officer Nitin Agrawal says on a Tuesday call, adding that each GPU that comes online has multiple customers asking for its capacity. "We are being disciplined in how we allocate our scarce cloud capacity," Agrawal says. "We are prioritizing opportunities that are strategically important, adding new customers while deepening long term existing relationships and delivering attractive returns that, as [CEO Mike Intrator] noted, are expanding further." Shares gain 14%, to $102.60. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

Cloud-computing demand continues to grow, CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator says on a Tuesday call after the company reported a fifth consecutive quarter of record revenue. "Our near-term capacity remains effectively sold out," Intrator says. "That is translating into signed commitments on increasingly favorable terms from a broadening set of customers and is positioning CoreWeave to gain market share for years to come." Intrator adds that CoreWeave is well-positioned to benefit as enterprises increasingly see compute needs as ongoing requirements rather than one-time costs. Shares of CoreWeave jump 13%. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1830 ET - Australian stock futures are pointing to a soft start to a session, although the announcement of stronger-than-expected earnings by the country's largest bank could lift sentiment. Local equity futures were down by 0.4% ahead of Wednesday's session, suggesting that the S&P/ASX 200 could follow U.S. indices lower. Ahead of the open, Commonwealth Bank reported an annual profit and dividend that both beat analysts' expectations. Any positive move by the ASX's second biggest stock could offset weakness elsewhere. General insurer Suncorp announced a special dividend and new share buyback after lifting its annual underlying earnings by 4.5%. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)

1756 ET [Dow Jones]--Super Micro Computer executives decline to comment on the state of its board's investigation into two former employees and a contractor accused of smuggling Nvidia chips to China, saying only they expect to issue an update shortly. The investigation was launched in April, shortly after co-founder and senior vice president Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw was arrested and charged with violating U.S. export-control laws by facilitating shipments of Nvidia chips to China. The company placed Liaw on leave, and he subsequently resigned. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1628 ET - CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator says the company has "reached an important inflection point this quarter as our scale began to translate into expanding operating leverage," as the AI cloud services provider reports revenue more than doubling to $2.58 billion in the second quarter. The company widened its loss to $626 million from $290 million a year earlier, but reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of $1.51 billion with an adjusted Ebitda margin of 59%. Shares tick up 0.8% after-hours on Tuesday. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1626 ET - Diesel futures rise as markets remain unconvinced of a near-term solution to supply disruptions in the Middle East. "The Chinese import slowdown is really solving a big portion of the crude problem," says Rabobank's Joe DeLaura. But that means Chinese refineries are running at slower rates, which along with stepped up Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries is creating a big shortage. "Diesel markets are going completely parabolic because there's not enough product and diesel has basically no demand elasticity. There is no price which you will not pay for diesel because it keeps your business running," DeLaura says. Nymex diesel settles up 1.5%, at $4.2525 a gallon, and ICE gasoil rises 1.5%, to $1,324.51 a metric ton, ahead of tomorrow's August contract expiration. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)

1239 ET--Smithfield is operating in a cautious consumer and volatile commodity environment, CEO Shane Smith says on a call with analysts Tuesday. "Based on what we know today, we believe it is appropriate to update our 2026 outlook to reflect the current macroeconomic backdrop, while continuing to invest in the strategies that positioned Smithfield for long-term growth," he says. The company now expects total sales to be roughly flat this year, compared with a prior forecast of up low-single-digits. On the consumer side, the spending environment continues to pressure volumes, and the company also is navigating softer meat and hog markets, Smith says. "On the cost side, we are expecting continued volatility and inflationary inputs, such as fuel and freight throughout 2026," he adds. Shares are off 2.8%. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

Enterprises are likely to diversify their artificial intelligence model usage as part of a shift toward a "modular" AI stack, Truist analysts write in a note. The analysts expect businesses will approach model choice pragmatically, opting for lower-cost models for simple tasks, frontier models for more difficult problems, and customized open-weight models trained on proprietary data. "The broader implication is that enterprise AI is becoming modular. We expect enterprises to assemble AI systems from interchangeable components-multiple frontier models, proprietary data products, customized open models, orchestration software, governance and security layers, and inference infrastructure," the analysts write. "In our view, the companies that coordinate this increasingly complex ecosystem capture more durable value than those supplying any single component." (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1229 ET - Best Buy could have a longer runway for growth thanks to the proliferation of AI across hardware devices, Truist analysts Scot Ciccarelli and Joseph Civello say. Consumers are using AI primarily via computers and phones, but newer AI models continually require higher-tech hardware, the analysts say. AI is also being incorporated into smart glasses, rings, watches and home automation systems, they note. They see a potential for even greater integration into televisions and other appliances. "As AI proliferates, we think we could see an accelerated adoption process for consumer hardware that would ultimately benefit Best Buy," the analysts say. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)

The capability of artificial-intelligence models is likely to be less important than the enterprise "control plane" that governs them, Truist analysts write in a note following meetings at the Ai4 conference. "We increasingly believe enterprises view these models as commoditized and interchangeable sources of intelligence," the analysts write. "We believe differentiation increasingly lies in proprietary data, workflows, and institutional knowledge, with more value shifting toward application layer tools that can enable them to securely deploy, govern, monitor, and optimize AI across the organization." Palantir is the clearest beneficiary of this thesis, they write, with CoreWeave, Accenture, and Cognizant Technology Solutions also well-positioned. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1217 ET -- Hims & Hers Health is showing off an impressive growth trajectory for revenue that's being undercut by profitability concerns, Truist analysts say in a research note. The telehealth company raised its full-year revenue outlook on the back of its international expansion and shift toward branded weight-loss drugs, the analysts say. Most of the raise came from the inclusion of Hims' recent acquisition of Eucalyptus, they say. But investors are still debating whether the company can hit profit targets for the second half of the year, they say. Gross margins dropped in 2Q because selling third-party branded GLP-1s yields lower margins than the company's traditional compounded treatments, the analysts say, reiterating their hold rating on the stock. Shares slip 2.5% to $30.97.