The latest Market Talks covering Financial Services. Exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.

0635 GMT - The RBI's shift in its policy stance to "calibrated" suggests today's rate hike isn't an open-ended monetary-tightening cycle, Samco Mutual Fund's Umeshkumar Mehta says in an email. The Indian central bank's monetary policy will probably remain data-dependent and measured, the CIO says. Its description of a "calibrated" tightening underscores a preference for a gradual approach, leaving the door open to further action if inflationary pressures prove more persistent than anticipated, Mehta adds. The dollar rises 0.3% to 96.6425 rupees, highest intraday level since late July, LSEG data show. (ronnie.harui@wsj.com)

0518 GMT - NTT stands to benefit from its subsidiary's mobile rate increases, Nomura's Daisaku Masuno says in a research report. The increases, announced in September, are slated to be introduced in December and will boost sales by around Y35 billion for fiscal year ending March 2027 and by about Y55 billion for next fiscal year, the analyst estimates. Meanwhile, growth in NTT's overseas data center business will probably act as a catalyst for modest share price growth from here. The brokerage raises the stock's target price to Y197 from Y194 to factor in the planned mobile rate increases, with unchanged buy rating. Shares are 1.1% higher at Y172.0. (ronnie.harui@wsj.com)

0454 GMT - The Australian dollar-the Japanese yen pair may have reached its long-term ceiling, Citi Research strategists say in a note. The pair's 100-day moving average, now around 112, will likely become a resistance line that stifles any rebound, the U.S. bank says. In addition to the overall weakness of the yen, the strength of the Australian dollar in a risk-on environment drove the pair sharply higher earlier this year, the bank says. Citi expects the Australian dollar-yen pair to decline to around 108 by December, followed by a fall to below 105 in the first half of next year. The pair is at 110.43. (kosaku.narioka@wsj.com; @kosakunarioka)

0144 GMT - Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank are likely to be bigger beneficiaries of a rising interest-rate environment than their larger peer DBS Group, says RHB Research's Singapore team in a note. This is likely due to the difference in the three banks' hedging positions and net-interest income sensitivity, they say. For instance, UOB has around 80% of its loans on a floating rate basis, while DBS has about one-third of its commercial book in fixed-rate assets, they say. OCBC remains RHB's top sector pick on its balance sheet strength and earnings momentum, with RHB raising its estimates for the bank's 2027-2028 net profit by 4%-6%. (megan.cheah@wsj.com)

0106 GMT - Tower gets a new bull in Forsyth Barr, which has greater confidence in the general insurer's partnership-led growth and leverage to a recovery in pricing. Tower this week upgraded its FY26 underlying net profit outlook to NZ$69 million-NZ$79 million. That's 23% above the midpoint of earlier guidance. Analyst James Lindsay says gross written premium growth of 3% beat his expectations. It suggests stronger-than-expected 2H momentum from organic and partnership-led customer growth. "Given our expectations for risk-mix impacts to moderate through 1H27 and previous analysis suggesting the New Zealand insurance pricing cycle could be approaching trough levels, our confidence in Tower's growth outlook has improved," Forsyth Barr says. It upgrades the stock to outperform, from neutral. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

0054 GMT - Singapore banks face downside 3Q earnings risks as market optimism on Singapore-dollar rates looks misplaced and exceptional wealth-related income in 1H normalizes, says Citi analyst Yong Hong Tan in a note. Citi expects net interest margin contraction as Singapore-dollar fixed-deposit rates rise 35-70 bps, fixed-rate loans reprice lower, and the one-month Singapore Overnight Rate Average rises about 10 bps. It cuts Oversea-Chinese Banking to sell from neutral, lowering its target to 27.50 Singapore dollars from S$32.00. DBS remains a buy with its target raised to S$86.80 from S$85.00, while UOB is maintained as a sell with an unchanged S$38.00 target. DBS closed 0.9% higher at S$78.56 on Tuesday, while OCBC rose 1.0% to S$32.20 and UOB gained 1.5% to S$43.72. (venkat.pr@wsj.com)

2157 GMT - Macquarie isn't ready to turn bullish on Tower, despite the New Zealand-based general insurer's upgrade to its annual earnings guidance. Tower now expects an underlying net profit of NZ$69 million-NZ$79 million in FY26. That's above prior guidance of NZ$55 million-NZ$65 million. The upgrade reflects only NZ$25 million of large events claims costs, compared with Tower's FY26 allowance of NZ$45 million. "Tower is one of the few insurance companies in the region with organic volume growth," Macquarie says. "But at this point in the premium rate cycle we maintain our neutral recommendation." Tower is up 1.5% at NZ$2.07 today. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)

1812 GMT - Kalshi says that it has launched a new perpetual futures contract for the U.S. 500 - an index of the 500 largest U.S. companies weighed by market capitalization. The prediction market platform says that this contract is its first move into equities, building off of the progress it made listing crypto perpetual futures earlier this year. "With prediction markets, you get exposure to the events that affect the stock market," says Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour in a press release. "The next step is exposure to the stock market itself, and the U.S. 500 perp is the best way for our traders to get it." (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)

1102 GMT - India's central bank is likely to raise its policy repo rate by 25 bps to 5.50% on Wednesday, according to nine out of 10 economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. Rising energy costs and a sharp pickup in food prices are expected to push CPI inflation back above the Reserve Bank of India's target range, and it'll likely raise rates to prevent inflation expectations from de-anchoring, ING economists write in a note. UOB economist Jester Koh noted from the MPC meetings in August that several members said that while rate hikes on the horizon, they are adopting a wait-and-see approach first. Koh expects the RBI to be on pause before delivering two back-to-back 25bps rate hikes. (kimberley.kao@wsj.com)

1014 GMT - Major banks will develop market infrastructure for round-the-clock trading when demand for 24/7 trade proves itself, says Deutsche Bank's head of digital assets & currency transformation, Sabih Behzad. Tokenization can be used to facilitate 24/7 trade, but developing the infrastructure to accommodate markets is more complex than markets appreciate, Behzad says, speaking at the Digital Assets Week conference in London. "For banks to stand up that infrastructure for one or two trades isn't going to happen. We're only going to do that if the market starts to move at pace." The industry needs to ensure tokenization doesn't lead to collateral existing in multiple disconnected venues, Behzad adds. (josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)

0920 GMT - Julius Baer expects the Federal Reserve to deliver one final rate hike in December, followed by an extended pause, says chief economist David Kohl. The U.S. labor market cooled slightly in September, with overall job growth slowing and fewer than 50% of industries reporting job gains, among other indicators. Julius Baer now sees the December FOMC meeting as the most likely opportunity for the next 25bp rate hike. Financial conditions have tightened since the last FOMC meeting far more because of rising long-term yields and U.S. dollar appreciation than the increase in short-term rates, while the offset from higher equity markets has moderated, he says. (jiahui.huang@wsj.com; @ivy_jiahuihuang)

0842 GMT - Banco Santander's discount to peers is difficult to justify, especially as first-round results from Brazil's election may calm investors, Citi analysts write. Market-friendly candidate Flavio Bolsonaro received stronger-than-expected support in the first round of the election, but uncertainty remains ahead of the second round later this month, Citi notes. Brazil contributes 15% of Santander earnings, making the election a key topic for investors. Santander continues to trade at a discount to peers despite strong earnings growth, Citi adds. "While Brazil remains a key risk, we believe the magnitude of SAN's valuation discount appears difficult to justify based on our earnings and cost of risk assumptions," the analysts say. Shares are up 1.6%.