US EQUITY OPEN: Tech gets crushed after the open as the sell-off continues

OPEN: US indices opened lower, with the Nasdaq 100 significantly lagging, weighed on by notable weakness in Tech, the worst-performing sector. Qualcomm (-12%) is being hit hard post-earnings amid weak smartphone chip sales, while neoclouds, semiconductors and memory names are all being sold aggressively. The exception is the hyperscalers (AMZN, GOOGL, MSFT), which are gaining on the view that they are now more likely to grow their share of AI compute and absorb excess demand from the data center build-out. Sectors are mixed, with Energy the outperformer, buoyed by gains in the crude complex, albeit still significantly lower on the week. The most recent Middle East headline came from N12, which reported that senior US officials see a high probability of war with Iran. Treasuries are little changed across the curve, although they have climbed notably in recent trade amid the broader risk-off tone. Precious metals are in the green to varying degrees, with spot gold outperforming spot silver. On the data front, jobless claims remain below 200k, continuing to point to a low-hire, low-fire economy, while Revelio Labs nonfarm payrolls for October rose 26k, down from an upwardly revised 67.6k. The Dollar Index is marginally firmer, with the Aussie lagging on the risk sentiment, while the havens (CHF, JPY) are eking out gains against the Buck. GBP/USD moved higher after a much more hawkish than expected BoE decision: the Bank hiked by 25bps in an 8-1 vote, with Mann dissenting in favour of a larger 50bps rise. STOCK SPECIFICS: Qualcomm (QCOM): Weak smartphone chip sales, driven by sluggish handset demand. Arm Holdings (ARM): Royalty rev. light, partly pressured by memory-related smartphone market weakness. Coherent (COHR): Quarterly profit missed. Sony Group (SONY): Results impressed & lifted FY op. profit view. Micron Technology (MU): Suspended construction of planned $4.5bln memory chip facility in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Nvidia (NVDA): c. 600k H200 AI chips accumulated in Hong Kong await shipment to mainland China. Snap (SNAP): Rev. & DAUs missed. AppLovin (APP): Headline metrics topped as did next Q guidance & expanded share buyback prog. Tapestry (TPR): EPS, rev. & op. income beat. Rockwell Automation (ROK): Top line fell short of Wall St. exp. Cigna Group (CI): Strong Q metrics & FY EPS view. Amcor (AMCR): Profit light & cut FY outlook. Zillow Group (Z): Headline metrics short & CEO noted one of the most challenging housing environments in a generation. Microsoft (MSFT) spent $5bln less on Q3 capex than projected due to delays in 3rd party data centre capacity, incl. facilities operated by IREN (IREN). Microsoft (MSFT) will reportedly not expand Texas data centre deal with UK's Nscale.