Bears Retreat, Earnings Roll In, Oil Tops $100

US: Healthcare and Tech Lead the Day

Tenet Healthcare stole the show Wednesday. The hospital operator raised full-year EPS guidance to $34.57–$36.43, crushing the $24.76 consensus estimate. Revenue guidance also moved higher, to $21.9B–$22.5B. The stock jumped sharply on the news.

The earnings wave is building fast. Roche, Nestlé, and BNP Paribas report today. American Express drops Q2 results tomorrow. Next week brings Coca-Cola, Qualcomm, and Microsoft.

Ahead of Microsoft's July 29 earnings, short sellers are fleeing. SI collapsed 94% in a week to just 0.06% of free float. Bears are closing out — the clearest signal yet that expectations are running high.

Options flows tell a different story in software. Oracle, down 35% year-to-date, is absorbing heavy put volume. ServiceNow is off 38% in 2026. Bearish bets are piling in on both names.

Europe: SAP Rallies, Oil Hits $100

SAP rallied today despite missing Q2 earnings estimates. Investors appear focused on cloud growth over near-term margins. The German software giant remains a flagship European tech name.

The bigger European story is oil. Brent crude crossed $100 for the first time since May. Middle East tensions are driving the move. Southwest Airlines is already responding — the carrier shipped Texas jet fuel by boat to Los Angeles for the first time, citing supply worries.

Rising oil threatens a new inflation jolt. Bond markets are already reacting, with a global sell-off in government debt gathering pace. That puts pressure on rate-cut expectations heading into a heavy earnings week.

Short Interest Watch

Wolfspeed remains the most shorted large US stock at 79.7% of free float. Availability is zero. Analysts cut targets at Comcast and trimmed coverage at Honeywell this week.