US EQUITY OPEN: NDX lags as memory weakness weighs on Columbus Day

OPEN: US indices open mixed, as the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (-0.4%) lags and weighed on by weakness in memory names, highlighted by Micron lower by 3.5% after China’s CXMT unveiled ‘key progress’ on chip structure. Overall, sectors are mixed with Energy and Communication Services sitting atop of the pile, with the former buoyed by gains of c. USD 2/bbl in crude benchmarks. In terms of latest news, Saudi Energy Ministry expects it will take 2-3 years to increase oil pipeline capacity to 10mln BPD, while Trump announced a potential Russia-Ukraine energy ceasefire, although this saw some pushback from Ukraine amid fresh Russian strikes on a power plant. Regarding diesel, US President Trump lifted Russia's diesel export ban to help offset high diesel prices. Back to sectors, Consumer Discretionary and Technology are the laggards. The Dollar Index is firmer to the detriment of most G10 FX peers, with the Swissy the clear laggard and the Pound the relative outperformer ahead of PM Burnham’s speech today, where he is expected to speak on improving the UK’s relationship with the EU. Precious metals are lower, while T-Note futures are marginally lower, but as a reminder cash treasury trade is closed due to US Columbus Day. Given that, the day ahead is quiet with only Fed's Hammack and LVMH earnings scheduled. STOCK SPECIFICS: CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings (CCC) is in advanced talks to be acquired by GTCR & Elliott & deal could be announced as soon as this week IonQ (IONQ) to purchase Elisity in a transaction that is valued at up to $1.3bln Salesforce (CRM) double upgraded at Bank of America to 'Buy' from 'Underperform' Iren (IREN) quietly signed a multiyear cloud computing deal w/ Anthropic Amazon (AMZN) in talks to acquire Decart AI in a deal valued c. $7bln Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) announces Phase 3 ACTION-1 for RYZ101 met the primary endpoint Solventum (SOLV) gathering initial bids for its Health Information Systems unit, and being pitched at a valuation of $5.5-7bln Starbucks (SBUX) said it is not buying Chipotle (CMG) after takeover speculation