US EQUITY OPEN: Indices in the green as Tech sector outperforms as earnings continue

OPEN: US indices opened in positive territory, with Technology and Consumer Discretionary sitting atop of the sectoral breakdown, and buoyed by strength in semiconductors, neocloud names, and also an upgrade at Broadcom (AVGO). Energy and Consumer Staples are the laggards, with the former weighed on by weakness of c. USD 1/bbl in the crude complex. In terms of recent Middle East developments, benchmarks saw knee-jerk downside, as Iran's Supreme Leader called for proposals outlining acceptable conditions to end the war. Prior to this, energy ticked higher amid multiple geopolitical headlines, including reports of an explosion at the Saudi Ras Tanura (550k BPD) refinery. The Dollar Index is firmer with mixed performance against G10 FX peers as Antipodeans gain vs. the Buck ahead of the RBNZ rate decision overnight, whereby they are expected to raise rates, with the NZIER Shadow Board also recommending a hike. Other G10 peers see weakness, albeit on no distinct currency-specific catalyst. Treasuries are lower across the curve ahead of the 5yr note auction, and also 20-30yr Treasury buyback. Precious metals are slightly mixed with spot gold higher and chopping around USD 4k/oz, while spot silver is flat.

On the data footing, US Durable Goods were mixed as the headline impressed, but ex-transport and ex-air fell short of Wall St. consensus. Ahead, consumer confidence, Richmond Fed, and new home sales await. After-hours earnings highlights include V, STX, and NXPI.

• Cadence Design Systems (CDNS): Q3 numbers beat & raised FY26 outlook.
• Corning (GLW): Solid report; headline numbers topped as did next Q guidance.
• SoFi Technologies (SOFI): Q nos. & FY26 guidance impressed.
• Nvidia (NVDA) said it plans to invest $3bln in Meta Platforms' (META) equity offering.
• PayPal (PYPL): Top line missed.
• S&P Global (SPGI): EPS & rev. topped alongside lifting FY view.
• Whirlpool (WHR): Dismal report; surprise loss per shr., rev. missed & cut FY outlook.
• Royal Caribbean (RCL): Profit beat & lifted FY view.
• Sherwin-Williams (SHW): Bottom line underwhelm & midpoint of FY outlook fell short of Wall St. exp.
• UPS (UPS): Q metrics surpassed & lifted FY guidance.
• Johnson Controls (JCI): Strong earnings w/ stellar outlook.
• Boeing (BA): Deeper loss per shr. than exp, but rev. & adj. FCF topped.
• Broadcom (AVGO): Upgraded at DA Davidson.
• Moderna (MRNA): Downgraded at William Blair.
• JetBlue (JBLU): Results showed rev. growth, better-than-exp. fare recovery against higher fuel costs and improving operating margins, while mgmt. reaffirmed its goal of returning to operating profit next year.
• AMD (AMD) and Meta (META) collaborate across CPUs, GPUs, networking, systems and software to power Meta services and AI infrastructure; AMD will invest USD 1bln in Meta's equity offering.

Session wraps of this kind, an earnings-heavy tape with tech leadership and semis out front, have tended to follow a familiar sequence: index-level gains concentrate in the mega-cap and AI-adjacent complex while breadth decides whether the move holds into the close, and laggard sectors, here energy and staples, set the tone for the defensives-versus-cyclicals read. The mixed single-stock reactions are the standard pattern mid-season: beats with raised guidance are being rewarded, while misses on the consumer and industrial side draw outsized punishment, a dispersion that historically widens as the reporting calendar matures. The crude complex is trading headline to headline, with supply-infrastructure reports producing knee-jerk spikes that have tended to fade when physical flows are confirmed intact, and diplomatic signals from Tehran producing the inverse move. Rates are softer into supply, with an auction and a buyback on the docket, a combination that has previously set up concession-driven afternoon reversals in the long end. The follow-ons are the after-hours prints in payments and semis, the confidence and housing data due intraday, and the RBNZ decision overnight, where a fully telegraphed hike shifts the risk to the guidance rather than the move itself.