Mega-Cap Earnings Week Collides With NVIDIA's Korea Blitz

The Week's Defining Story

This week belongs to earnings. MSFT, AAPL, and AMZN all report in the next four days. Microsoft is the single biggest event — its $2.8tn market cap means every line of cloud and AI revenue moves markets. KO and SPGI kick off Tuesday before the open. F reports Tuesday after hours. QCOM and LRCX follow on Wednesday. Options traders are already positioning — UNP leads the S&P 500 in bullish options flow, up 33% year-to-date ahead of its own results.

NVIDIA's Weekend Moves

NVDA announced a $1B investment in South Korea's Naver over the weekend. It also joined SK Group in a $500B+ initiative covering AI factories and next-generation memory. That scale is hard to ignore in a week already dominated by AI earnings narratives.

Analysts Upgrade Rails and Healthcare

Citigroup lifted UNP to Buy with a $349 target. NSC was also upgraded to Hold. On healthcare, MCK received a Buy with a $1,000 target. CAH also got a Buy. Utilities moved the other way — DUK, XEL, and ETR all saw modest target cuts.

Shorts and Sellers

HTZ remains the most contested name in short markets. Short interest sits at 75% of free float with zero shares available to borrow. Put flow is heavy. Separately, DELL saw $74.8M in insider sales filed by Silver Lake Group. Oil prices eased after a US-Iran pause, pulling back energy shorts slightly.