Semiconductor bulls dominated the tape Friday. NVDA and MU drew the heaviest bullish options flow among large caps. MU is up 232% this year. NVDA sits near $5.4 trillion in market cap. AMD, up 125% year-to-date, also featured on the positive flow list. Analyst upgrades backed the move. Wells Fargo and RBC both raised targets on SNDK to $1,550–$1,600. DELL got a fresh Buy-rated target lift to $545 from Wells Fargo.
Short sellers are pressing their bets on damaged names. WOLF SI hit 85.2% of free float, with zero shares left to borrow. REPL jumped 10.4 percentage points in a week to 37.9% of FF. CXW saw a sharp new short build, rising from 2.4% to 10% of FF in seven days.
HON is moving the other way. Short interest fell 20% on the week to just 1.25% of float — its lowest level in months.
The US Treasury sold 30-year bonds at the highest yield since 2001. Rising costs reflect growing concern over the national debt. Persistently high inflation is adding fuel to the move. The FT flagged that hyperscaler AI borrowing — from the likes of AMZN and GOOGL — is squeezing foreign credit markets in Canadian dollars, Swiss francs, and sterling.
PFE and VLA received a European regulatory validation for their Lyme disease vaccine application. That is a meaningful step toward approval. SoftBank trimmed its TSM stake by 72% while taking a new position in COF. Chinese tech valuations are running at multiples of their US peers, with Beijing support driving a 29% gain in the Star 50 index this year.
HD reports Tuesday. Investors will watch for signs of consumer stress. PGR follows Wednesday.
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.
