Investor confidence is returning to US equities. The FT reports that bullishness is back on Wall Street, driven by a strong earnings season and falling inflation. Chip stocks have rebounded after July's sell-off. NVIDIA and Advanced Micro Devices are drawing heavy call flow in the options market. Micron Technology leads for positive options bets — the stock is up 240% year-to-date and analysts still see 55% more upside.
Retail earnings dominate this week's calendar. Target and Lowe's both report Tuesday. Ross Stores follows Wednesday. Short interest across all three is below 4% of free float, pointing to a market leaning bullish ahead of the numbers.
Bill Gates filed purchases of over $106 million in Republic Services stock across August 10 and 11. He paid between $214 and $217 per share. Separately, Aptiv CEO Kevin Clark spent $2.5 million of his own money buying shares on August 11 — a rare open-market move from a C-suite executive.
Short sellers pressed hard into biotech. Replimune Group saw SI % FF jump +10.4 percentage points to 37.8% in a week. Wolfspeed remains the most crowded short at 85.2% of free float — with zero availability left to borrow.
The US Treasury sold 30-year bonds at the highest borrowing cost since 2001. Yields are rising on concerns over mounting debt and sticky inflation. That backdrop makes the bond market a growing risk for equity valuations.
European stocks are advancing amid geopolitical calm. Ukraine's ratification of a $105 billion EU loan deal lifted sentiment. Defense sectors outperformed. Chinese tech valuations are surging on AI momentum, with the Star 50 index up 29% this year.
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.
