Berkshire Hathaway kicks off the week with Q2 2026 results today. It is the first major name to report. The week builds quickly. Cisco Systems reports Wednesday after the bell. Applied Materials closes the week Thursday. Both carry market caps above $400 billion. Options traders are already cautious. Put-heavy flow dominated in Super Micro Computer ahead of its Q4 print. Lucid Group drew just 1.9% bullish options flow — one of the most bearish readings in the US market.
Short sellers added pressure across several names this week. HTZ sits at 82.6% SI % FF with zero shares available to borrow. A short squeeze is already underway. is similarly cornered at 79.3% SI % FF and zero availability. saw a fresh jump of 2.9 percentage points in a week to 15.1% SI % FF. Bears are reassessing the cloud-comms name after a difficult earnings run.
Boston Scientific CEO Michael Mahoney filed a $9M purchase on August 5 — a rare buy signal from a sitting chief executive. Against that, sellers dominated elsewhere. PBF Energy insiders filed $36.6M in combined sales. Life Time Group insiders collectively sold $24.5M. Charles Schwab's founder filed over $30M in SCHW sales across late July and early August.
European equities remain sensitive to macro crosscurrents. The FT flagged that a US dollar/euro intervention blindsided the ECB. Oil markets face a refining crunch as Russian and Gulf capacity stays offline. Danish wind firm Vestas Wind Systems reports Wednesday — a key read on European clean energy demand. El Niño risks are also rising, with commodity traders on alert for food price volatility.
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.
