Mega-Cap Earnings Meet AI Trade War Sparks

Biggest Week of Earnings Season

The market faces its biggest test of the year on Wednesday. MSFT reports tonight at 5:30 PM ET. Azure cloud growth and AI monetisation are the key metrics. AAPL and AMZN follow Thursday. Apple's China iPhone guidance will be closely watched. Amazon's AWS growth could set the tone for the entire cloud sector. QCOM and LRCX also report after the bell tonight.

China Humanoid Robot Ban Rattles Markets

A new US ban on humanoid robot exports to China hit the wires overnight. Beijing called it a move that "severely damages" relations. The ban directly threatens TSLA's Optimus programme. China reportedly makes half the components used in production. NVDA is also caught in the crossfire as AI chip restrictions tighten further. This is not a new theme — but today's escalation is fresh and significant.

AI Chips: Shorts Build, Puts Pile In

The AI selloff is accelerating. Short sellers added aggressively to WOLF — now at 80.6% SI % of free float with zero borrow available. SMCI carries 16.3% short interest and a short score above 62. Options flow on MU turned heavily negative. SK Hynix's earnings miss rattled the entire memory supply chain. Analysts trimmed targets on TER to $440.

Short Squeeze Watch

HTZ sits at 84.1% SI % of free float with zero shares available to borrow. Any positive catalyst could trigger a violent squeeze. CHWY is in a similar position at 80.4%. FTAI earnings landed this morning — stock fell, but shorts kept adding. That divergence is worth watching heading into the session.