Apple Sinks $390B as Earnings Week Gets Brutal

Apple After-Hours Shock

AAPL dropped as much as 6% in after-hours trading Thursday night. The selloff wiped roughly $390 billion in market cap in under an hour. Jim Cramer pinned the move on "memory and currency" headwinds. The drop sets a nervous tone heading into Friday's open.

Earnings Season in Full Swing

Today is one of the busiest mornings of the summer. XOM reports at 6:30 AM ET. CVX follows at 9:30 AM. Both oil majors head into results with analysts forecasting their strongest quarter in 15 periods. Brent above $100 — driven by US-Iran tensions — is the tailwind. Options flow for both names leans bullish. ABBV and LIN also report this morning. The week only gets bigger from here. AMD, META, and AMZN all report next week.

Bears and Shorts Take Aim

Short sellers are not sitting still. HIMS has shorts digging in ahead of its Monday earnings print. Options tilt defensively. Eversource Energy saw short interest jump 22% this week ahead of its Q2 results. Hertz remains at 84% of free float shorted — with zero shares left to borrow.

Meta Faces Two-Front Pressure

META is under pressure from multiple angles. Its analyst consensus target was trimmed to $773.59. The stock is down 11% year-to-date. Options flow shows negative bets dominating. RSI sits at just 41.4. Bears and cautious analysts are aligned ahead of next week's results.

Insider Selling Signals Caution

Insiders at several names cashed out this week. A 10% owner at SAFT filed $128M in sales at $103 per share. BBRC International sold over $71M of VSXY stock. Both sellers locked in gains after sharp recent rallies.