US EQUITY OPEN: Stocks lower as oil climbs and Samsung prelim earnings hit memory sector

OPEN: Stocks have opened lower on Thursday, with underperformance in the Nasdaq, while tech stocks underperform following Samsung (SSNLF/005930 KS) prelim Q3 earnings overnight, seeing the stock close lower by 2% - weighing on US memory names, while chip names (NVDA, AVGO, AMD and INTC) are also falling. Broadcom (AVOG) is lower after WSJ reported it is weighing a financing plan that could raise over USD 50bln for OpenAI's purchase of custom AI chips, involving private credit firms like Apollo and Blackstone. Meanwhile, the Treasury yield curve is flattening with front-end yields rising while long-end yields are lower ahead of the 20-30 year buyback operation and the 30-year bond auction due later today. In FX, Aussie is marginally lower while Euro and Dollar are flat. The ECB Minutes saw eurozone yields move lower, in turn supporting the Euro as it eased fiscal concerns, with the minutes acknowledging higher, orderly yields could affect where policy rates should go in the future, suggesting the move higher in yields could do some of the tightening for them. Crude prices are rallying today on further reports that US President Trump is considering striking Iran again before the midterms. Some pressure was seen after Tasnim reported commentary from Iran FM Araghchi that they are reviewing the US proposal and will respond within a few days - albeit, given talks with the mediator stalled in recent days, the chances of an agreement remain slim. There have also been further strikes in Saudi Arabia by the Houthis, and also more threats for attacks on oil facilities. STOCK SPECIFICS: TSMC (TSM) Sept. rev. rose 54.6% Y/Y to TWD 511.86bln WSJ says Broadcom (AVGO) is arranging >$50bln of financing for OpenAI’s custom AI chips Wolfspeed (WOLF) announces conditional 30yr, $1.5bln loan commitment from US DoD Levi Strauss (LEVI) rev. light w/ weak next Q profit view PepsiCo (PEP) top & bottom line surpassed exp. argenx (ARGX) will discontinue Phase 3 UNITY study of efgartigimod subcutaneous Crescent Energy (CRGY) to buy Devon's (DVN) Eagle Ford assets for $4.22bln in cash Viatris (VTRS) agrees to acquire Pacira Biosciences (PCRX) for $36.5/shr or $1.65bln; PCRX closed Wed. at $25.20/shr Samsung Electronics prelim Q3 op. profit +783% Y/Y & rev. +127% Y/Y, albeit both missed exp. Google (GOOGL) Cloud introduces Gemini agent GlobalFoundries (GFS) signs a five-year silicon interposer manufacturing agreement with TSMC (TSM), volume production expected to ramp up in H1'28