Market Review 

MY: While global crude oil prices touched a two-week high, the local bourse remained resilient, buoyed by gains in banking heavyweights such as CIMB and PBBANK. Sector-wise, Healthcare (+1.74%) outperformed, led by IHH and KPJ, while Technology (-4.07%) lagged the most. 

US: Wall Street ended marginally lower on Tuesday, as earlier gains in the Dow faded following a wave of mixed earnings. Pressured by concerns over Chinese competition in AI memory chips and muted oil price movements, the S&P 500 settled virtually flat, while the Dow and Nasdaq declined 0.4% and 0.2%. 

The Day Ahead 

US: With chip stocks extending losses and mixed big-bank earnings, we expect Wall Street to remain cautious ahead of Wednesday’s September CPI, with 10-year Treasury yields near 5.2%. We favour ServiceNow, as its AI business surpassed USD1bn in annual contract value, with analysts raising price targets to USD170–190 ahead of its 28 October results. We also favour Texas Instruments, supported by data centre demand and its proposed USD7.5bn Silicon Labs acquisition. Lastly, traders could consider Analog Devices, following its proposed USD1.35bn Alif Semiconductor acquisition to strengthen its edge-AI capabilities. 

MY: Tracking Wall Street’s sell-off, we expect the local bourse to trade softer, with investors selective towards post-Budget 2027 beneficiaries. Despite profit-taking in MNHLDG following its RM293.9m data centre power contract, we view the pullback as a potential accumulation opportunity if it holds above its 20-day EMA. TNB’s RM15bn grid investment could also benefit transmission and distribution players such as SCGBHD and PWRWELL. Lastly, we favour PEKAT, backed by its RM57.2m data centre lightning protection contract, lifting its unbilled order book to RM936m (~1.5x FY25 revenue), while its planned 4Q26 Main Market transfer could attract institutional interest.