The week of 3–10 August is defined by earnings, not macro. No rate decisions are scheduled. The data calendar is light after Monday's ISM and JOLTS prints. That leaves the market focused on a dense earnings slate — AMD, Caterpillar, Eli Lilly, Disney, Palantir, and AppLovin all report this week. Meanwhile, ORTEX signals are flashing on a small cluster of high-conviction setups in mining, IT services, and EVs. Short sellers are active across multiple names as utilization spikes and borrow costs move sharply.
The macro calendar is thin but not empty. Monday brings the most actionable prints.
US ISM Manufacturing PMI (Monday, Aug 3) — Consensus is 54.0, up from 53.3 in June. That would be a third straight month of expansion. ISM Prices are expected to ease slightly to 70.3 from 73.0. Watch the sub-indices. A beat on new orders (previous: 56.0) would reinforce the industrial earnings story. reports Tuesday morning — ISM sets its backdrop.
US JOLTS Job Openings (Tuesday, Aug 4) — Consensus is 7.45M openings. The prior reading was 7.594M. A miss here would add to labour market softening signals. This is the week's most meaningful labour data point.
Eurozone Manufacturing PMI Final (Monday) — Final July reading expected at 52.0, up from 51.4. Germany at 52.2. France at 50.0 — barely expansion. The divergence matters for European industrial names reporting this week.
BoJ Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes (Tuesday) — Released overnight. Japan average cash earnings for June are expected at 3.4% YoY, up from 3.2%. Wage data and BoJ minutes together set the yen backdrop for Japanese earnings (Toyota, Mitsubishi, MUFG all report this week).
Non-earnings catalysts worth watching: Morgan Stanley hosts an Investor Group Call and Roadshow on Thursday. NVIDIA presents at the Future of Memory and Storage conference on Tuesday. Micron and AMD both appear at the KeyBanc Technology Leadership Forum starting Sunday 9 August.
Per the ORTEX event note: "The week's standout is Tuesday. Seven S&P 500 names report before noon. Caterpillar's guidance on tariff impacts will be the most-watched data point of the session."
Palantir — Monday 3 Aug, after market open Market cap $295bn. The event note flags: "Markets will watch its AI-driven revenue closely." No ORTEX short positioning snapshot is in the payload, but the company sits firmly in the AI narrative driving tech sentiment this week.
AMD — Tuesday 4 Aug Market cap $776bn. AMD reports Q2 2026. This is the week's biggest tech earnings event after NVDA's absence from the reporting calendar. AMD and Micron both attend the KeyBanc Tech Forum later in the week — guidance tone will shape the conference narrative. Watch for data-centre GPU commentary in the context of NVDA's $4.86trn market cap and AI infrastructure spending.
Caterpillar — Tuesday 4 Aug, 12:30 ET Market cap $375bn. The event note highlights: "Caterpillar's guidance on tariff impacts will be the most-watched data point of the session." ISM Manufacturing (Monday) sets the demand picture. CAT is the week's primary bellwether for global industrial activity.
Eli Lilly — Wednesday 5 Aug Market cap $1.02trn. Largest US healthcare company reporting this week. GLP-1 drug volume and pricing commentary will set tone for the entire pharma/biotech sector. Novo Nordisk reports the same day — a rare direct peer-comparison moment.
Novo Nordisk — Wednesday 5 Aug, H1 2026 Market cap $209bn. Reports H1 2026 results. Semaglutide competition with LLY is the central narrative. Both names on the same day makes this the biggest pharma day of the year so far.
Disney — Wednesday 5 Aug Market cap $167bn. Q3 2026 results. Streaming subscriber growth and theme park attendance are the watch items. Shopify reports the same morning at $152bn market cap — a read on e-commerce demand.
AppLovin — Wednesday 5 Aug Market cap $133bn. One of the year's best-performing ad-tech stocks. Q2 results will test whether mobile advertising growth is accelerating or plateauing. High-visibility print for AI-driven ad spend narratives.
Cloudflare — Thursday 6 Aug Market cap $99bn. Reports Q2 alongside Datadog at $95bn. Two high-growth cybersecurity and observability names on the same day. Together they provide a read on enterprise cloud spend. Both have attracted short-interest attention in the broader tech sector this month.
BHP — Utilization 100%, PCR at 52-week high Four ORTEX signal types are aligned: CTB, options, short interest, and utilization. Utilization sits at 100% with availability at just 0.79% of shares shorted. The put/call ratio hit 1.13 — a 52-week high and +3.0 z-score — despite the stock rising nearly 1% last week. Short interest fell 25% over one week. Bears are paying up to stay short while longs are buying puts. Both sides are nervous. Watch BHP as a proxy for Chinese industrial demand signals.
Infosys — CTB surged 267% in one month Four signal types aligned. CTB hit 27.9% — up 267% over one month. Utilization is at 100% with availability of just 0.20%. Short interest fell 19% over one week. That combination — CTB exploding while shorts exit — suggests a squeeze dynamic is unwinding rather than building. The PCR fell to 0.94, a -2.15 z-score versus its 20-day mean of 2.62. Options traders are turning less bearish. Consensus is "hold" with a mean price target of $11.85 versus a $12.03 close — limited upside per analysts. Stock is up 8.3% in one week.
LiveWire Group — CTB at 653%, borrow hits zero Three signal types: CTB, options, short interest, utilization. CTB rose 4,039% in one month to 652.7%. Utilization is 100%. Availability is zero. Short interest rose 48% in one week to 1.88% of float. The stock fell 12.1% on Friday after gaining 24% over the week. This is a high-volatility micro-cap setup. Days to cover stands at 9.7. Any positive catalyst in the EV space could accelerate covering pressure.
ASTS — Tightest squeeze setup since January 2021 A pulse published this morning rates severity as "high." Utilization hit 100% with availability at its lowest recorded level — 0.59% of shares shorted. ORTEX describes this as the "tightest squeeze setup since January 2021." Short interest remains elevated. No borrow available.
ACMR — Short interest surges 64% in one month Short interest surged 20% in one week to 6.66% of float. The monthly climb is 64%. The stock fell 38% in one month. This is a deliberate short build — not technical noise. Cost to borrow is rising as availability tightens.
Semiconductors and AI Infrastructure: Coordinated activity The broadest cluster of pulse activity this week sits across semis and AI-adjacent tech. AMD reports Tuesday. Micron and NXP Semiconductors attend the KeyBanc Tech Forum from Sunday. NVIDIA presents at FMS 2026 on Tuesday. Pulse activity hit names including NVDA, AMD, ANET, INTC, TSM, and SNDK across the sector. Sandisk and Western Digital both report Wednesday — a read on storage demand driven by AI infrastructure build-out. The sector's collective read on data-centre capex will be the dominant earnings narrative of the week.
Mining and Materials: Short squeeze watch BHP and Rio Tinto both show convergences across three or more signal types. BHP has utilization at 100% and a PCR at its 52-week high. RIO shows rising CTB (+3,369% in one week) alongside falling short interest and moderating options skew. Glencore reports H1 2026 results on Wednesday. Three major diversified miners reporting or presenting this week make the sector a focal point. Chinese PMI data (Monday) is the macro input: the expectation is 51.5, down slightly from 51.7.
Energy: Quiet shorts, active earnings ConocoPhillips, BP, Phillips 66, Marathon Petroleum, EOG Resources, Diamondback Energy, and Suncor all report this week. Pulse activity on LNG shows CTB doubling in one week. TALO short interest fell 20% as the stock rallied. The energy sector is heading into earnings with broadly falling short interest — bears are reducing, not adding.
Three threads matter most this week.
First, Caterpillar's tariff commentary on Tuesday. It is the single most-watched data point of the week per the ORTEX event note. A cautious guide on tariffs and construction demand could reset industrials pricing broadly.
Second, Lilly versus Novo Nordisk on Wednesday. Both GLP-1 leaders report on the same day. Their relative volume growth, pricing, and guidance will move the entire healthcare and obesity-drug sector. This is a rare same-day peer comparison at $1trn and $209bn market caps.
Third, BHP and the mining convergence. Utilization at 100%, PCR at a 52-week high, and CTB falling while shorts exit. If Chinese manufacturing data surprises to the upside on Monday, the unwinding of mining short positions could accelerate sharply heading into Glencore's Wednesday results.
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.
