Chips, Bears, and a Busy Earnings Week

NVDA in the Crosshairs

NVIDIA is the week's standout story — and not for good reasons. An independent board director disclosed $411 million in NVIDIA shares sold between August 31 and September 2. The sales were not flagged as pre-arranged under a 10b5-1 plan. At the same time, ORTEX data shows NVDA topping the negative options flow leaderboard over the past seven days. Short sellers are also watching the name closely. That is a rare alignment of insider, options, and sentiment signals all pointing in the same direction.

Bears Pile Into EVs and Chips

Short interest is rising fast in two sectors. Lucid Group saw its SI % of free float jump 14.4 percentage points to 49.7% in one week. Wolfspeed hit 83% SI % FF — one of the highest readings on US exchanges. Chewy also drew heavy new short positioning, up 11.3 points to 63.6%. Bears are betting on revenue slowdowns and continued margin pressure across all three names.

Analysts Lift Travel, Back Ad-Tech

On the bullish side, analysts upgraded AppLovin to Buy. Seven analysts now sit in the bull camp with a consensus target of $508. A broad wave of target price increases swept through travel names. Airbnb, Expedia, DoorDash, and Uber all moved higher in the same session.

UK Housebuilders Face Key Print

Across the Atlantic, Barratt Redrow heads into results after a bruising month for the UK housing sector. Peers Bellway, Vistry, Taylor Wimpey, and Persimmon are all in focus. Meanwhile, Trip.com posts Q2 results this week — a key read on China travel demand. Salesforce also approaches its Q3 print with shorts backing away and options hedging picking up.