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

1804 ET - Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal said Thursday it renewed its deal with the English Premier League to continue airing games in the U.S. for six more years. NBC has been airing English Premier League soccer matches on its broadcast and cable TV networks since 2013, and recently started showing matches on its streaming service, Peacock. NBC paid between $2.5B and $2.7B to hold onto the rights, and faced bidders such as Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN and Amazon.com Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. NBC Sports said it's been averaging 609,000 viewers across its English and Spanish language platforms this season, up 14% from last year, and the highest audience average through this point in the season since the 2015-2016 season. (lillian.rizzo@wsj.com; @lilliannnn)

1803 ET - The potential for printed circuitboard software provider Altium to take a significant share of the enterprise market supports Jefferies' decision to upgrade the stock to buy from hold. The investment bank cites feedback from an industry expert, who it doesn't name, and suggests Altium is both cheaper and easier to use than products by rival Mentor Graphics. Jefferies also likes the trajectory of Altium's cloud-service adoption and integration with other tools. Altium's recent trading update also gives it more confidence around the outlook. Jefferies raises target price by 66% to A$48.83. The stock last traded at A$41.06. (stuart.condie@wsj.com; @StuartLCondie)

1755 ET - Medibank's recently improved policyholder growth trajectory is impressive, with the current claims environment remaining broadly supportive of health-insurance operating margins near term, Morgans says. But the broker says following a good recent share price run it sees Medibank as trading closer to fair value and maintains its hold call. While Medibank's AGM largely reaffirmed key FY21 guidance metrics, Morgans notes there is a mild upgrade to Medibank's FY22 policyholder growth expectations. "Medibank is getting a good recent track record of upgrading policyholder growth guidance, with today's upgrade following three similar ones in FY 2021," says the broker. Morgans raises its target price 8.2% to A$3.55. Medibank was last up 0.9% to A$3.51. (alice.uribe@wsj.com)

1750 ET - Match has introduced matchmakers to its namesake dating app. A 50-member team will select two profiles for participating users each week for an extra $4.99 fee. The matchmakers are guided by a user's answers to four questions, including what a person would change about their dating life. The feature was created because the pandemic has created an urgency for singles looking to find a long-term relationship, says Amarnath Thombre, chief executive of Match Group Americas. The new Match feature helps humanize online dating, and mirrors things many single people already do, like asking others for advice on whom to date, says Nick Notas, a dating coach for men at Eros Consulting. (ann-marie.alcantara@wsj.com)

1738 ET - Rising demand for local infrastructure that helps reduce carbon emissions, such as community solar projects and waste-treatment plants, is widening the range of potential deal sizes for investors in such assets, says Rob Day, a partner at Spring Lane Capital. The Boston-based private-equity firm, which is targeting $400M for its second sustainable-infrastructure fund, plans to invest $25M to $40M per deal but could back projects valued at as much as $100M alongside other investors, Day says. "Some of the projects get to be fairly big and that's one reason why we're excited about being able to tackle some of those out of Fund II." (luis.garcia@wsj.com; @lhvgarcia)

1725 ET - The US dollar could benefit from the Fed's declining asset purchases, the scaling back of US fiscal stimulus and slowing global growth in 2022, UBS says. The bank expects currencies exposed to tightening monetary policies to appreciate, such as USD, GBP, CAD, NOK and NZD, compared with those bound to looser policies like CHF, EUR, JPY and SEK. In an inflationary environment, currency diversification can lower the risk of longer-term wealth erosion, UBS says. "Very high rates of inflation have historically tended to be local phenomena," the bank says. (dave.sebastian@wsj.com; @depsebastian)

1719 ET - Sonic Healthcare's latest trading update suggests more EPS upgrades are likely in FY 2022, Morgan Stanley says. Sonic's revenue lifted 5% to A$3.09B in the first four months of FY 2022, while Ebitda rose by 16% to A$991M. If that continues through December then Sonic's 1H revenue and Ebitda would beat consensus by 2% and 16%, respectively. "Additionally, Sonic states that base business revenue grew 6% versus the prior corresponding period and 4% versus the same period in FY 2020 (i.e. pre-pandemic)," says Morgan Stanley, adding that its broadly in line with its estimates. "We expect testing volumes to remain variable and note recent case surges in Germany in particular." (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

1715 ET - New Zealand's NZX-50 slips 0.3% to 12762 in early trading, which puts the index on pace for its third consecutive weekly decline as market interest rates track higher. NZD/USD has traded as high as 0.7054 after a jump in inflation expectations in RBNZ's regular survey renewed speculation of a 50bp rate increase next week. Among stocks, Auckland International Airport falls 1.1% after being downgraded by Jefferies, which says eventual recovery in air travel is factored into the share price following its recent gains. Retirement-village operator Ryman Healthcare drops 1.0% after lowering its dividend payout range. Power utilities are weaker and a2 Milk, which is set to be removed from the MSCI New Zealand index, sheds 1.0%. (stephen.wright@wsj.com)

1708 ET - Medibank's AGM and FY22 trading update suggests conservatism in membership growth targets, although claims are in line with prior guidance, Morgan Stanley says. It adds that Medibank has observed growth of 21,000 policyholders in the first four months of FY22, with the private health insurer now aiming to achieve at least 3% growth in policyholders in FY 2022. This is versus a prior expectation of around 3% provided by Medibank at the FY21 result. Medibank has left FY22 underlying claims growth expectations at 2.4%. (alice.uribe@wsj.com)

1654 ET - Jefferies believes Sonic's margins from providing Covid-19 tests are at least 800 basis points higher than from its traditional pathology business. "Pricing for Covid tests looks likely to continue at these relatively high levels to end-2021 at least," says Jefferies, which rates the stock a buy. It forecasts ongoing Covid pathology testing growth in FY 2202, as rising Covid cases lead more people to get tested. Strong margins from Covid tests mean Sonic is generating significant cash and "this raises the possibility of corporate activity over the medium term," Jefferies adds. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

1652 ET - Canadian stocks close mixed on broad-based sector declines. The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index eased 0.1% to 21637 while the blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 Index gained 0.1% to 1304. Energy companies like Cenovus and Suncor were among the ones whose stocks rose, while the energy index ended the day up 0.8%. (maria.armental@wsj.com; @mjarmental)

1651 ET - Johns Lyng's FY 2022 guidance undershoots what the building works company is likely to achieve, says Goldman Sachs. Johns Lyng expects a 22% rise in revenue this fiscal year, and a 29% rise in Ebitda. "We note that this guidance range doesn't incorporate upside from CAT work that had not yet been contracted (including the Victorian Government contract), and our estimates sit 15% ahead on revenue and 18% ahead on Ebitda," says Goldman. CAT work refers to Johns Lyng's response to catastrophic events, such as bushfires. For investors, bolt-on acquisitions could be stock catalysts along with Johns Lyng's 1H result in February, the bank adds. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)