US EQUITY OPEN: NDX gives back some of its recent strength ahead of mega-cap earnings after-hours

OPEN: US indices opened with downside bias as the Nasdaq 100 pares some of its recent strength ahead of GOOGL, TSLA, and INTC earnings after-hours. Sectors are broadly firmer, as Tech lags, while Materials and Energy sit atop of the breakdown. The latter is boosted by strength in the crude complex, which saw further gains as Trump said, "From this point forward, any time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz... US will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT". As such, Treasuries are marginally lower while G10s are mixed against the Greenback, albeit in pretty tight ranges. Precious metals are gaining with spot silver outperforming its peer. Ahead, the 20yr bond auction and Trump appearances are the highlights, with then focus turning to earnings after hours.STOCK SPECIFICS: Anthropic will purchase up to 2GW of AMD's (AMD) latest-generation chips, Instinct MI450, AMD will invest up to USD 5bln in Anthropic as certain deployment milestones are met. AMD is also in talks to provide a financial backstop for Anthropic's future data-centre leases as well, according to a person with direct knowledge of the talks. Super Micro Computer (SMCI): Stellar Q4 prelim GM figure Chubb (CB): Net premiums written missed. Equinor (EQNR): Q2 EBT rose, supported by higher oil & gas prices linked to Middle East supply disruptions TE Connectivity (TEL): Strong Q metrics & said it will power purchase Astrodyne TDI for $1.4bln GE Vernova (GEV): Profit light; Lifted FY26 rev. guidance, but left EBITDA unch. AT&T (T): Postpaid phone net adds. topped exp. PulteGroup (PHM): Top & bottom line surpassed Wall St. exp. Phillip Morris (PM): FY EPS view light Oklo (OKLO) and X-Energy (XE) joining an effort by Trump’s admin to speed up nuclear power plant development for AI data centers. Reddit (RDDT) has discussed shutting off Google's access to its content for AI use, according to WSJ citing sources.