Earnings season officially began Monday with PEP and LEVI set to report midweek. Options traders moved early. IBM attracted bullish positioning after BofA flagged strong Q2 signals and a possible 2026 guidance upgrade. Short interest sits at just 3.5% of free float, giving bulls room to run.
Lemonade surged sharply on Monday. The insurer carries 15% short interest. Bears look exposed as availability remains elevated at 403%.
AI infrastructure dominated deal flow. TeraWulf soared after locking in a $19 billion Anthropic deal. Micron signed a long-term memory supply agreement with Ford. Both stories reinforce the AI buildout narrative driving chip and data center names.
Microsoft cut 4,800 Xbox jobs. The layoffs hit the gaming division specifically. Markets absorbed the news without major reaction.
Hertz remains the most closely watched squeeze candidate. Short interest stands at 60.8% of free float. Available shares to borrow have hit zero. CoreWeave saw shorts pile in — SI jumped to 29.4%, up 5.7 points in a week, compounded by a founder share sale.
Goldman Sachs received the boldest target raise of the week. Evercore ISI lifted its price target to $1,075 from $950. Regional banks were mixed — Huntington Bancshares and Truist Financial faced downgrades while Citizens Financial got a target lift to $80.
European stocks faced pressure with defense names outperforming after Ukraine ratified a $105 billion EU loan deal. FT flagged that S&P 500 earnings forecasts are rising at the fastest pace since the post-Covid rebound — raising some concern about an earnings bubble. Oil bears are watching Citi's call for Brent at $60 by Christmas.
ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
