Tech Week Kicks Off With Bears Circling AI, Autos Flashing Red in Europe

Mega-Cap Earnings Dominate the Week

Microsoft and Amazon are the centrepiece of one of the busiest earnings weeks of the season. Both report Thursday alongside Intel, creating a single-day triple-header for big tech. Microsoft's cloud growth pace is the central question for the market. Amazon investors are focused on AWS margins and ad revenue. Intel's foundry progress will be closely watched. Options flow reflects the mood: Union Pacific, Cintas, and Illinois Tool Works all show 100% positive options flow over the past seven days. Broader large-cap positioning tilts firmly to calls.

Bears Pile Into AI Infrastructure

Short sellers added pressure to CoreWeave this week. Short interest rose 3.6 percentage points to 24.8% of free float in seven days. That signals deep scepticism about the AI infrastructure rally even as Taiwan's export orders broke a 42-year record in September, hitting NT$3,622.3bn. The record reflects the breadth of tech demand still flowing through the region.

European Autos Face a Difficult Print

European automakers report against a softening backdrop. ORTEX alt data shows Dutch car registrations, a leading indicator for MBG Mercedes-Benz revenue with a strong fit, running 6% below the same quarter last year across all three months. Austrian registrations point the same way for VOW3 Volkswagen, also down 6%. RNO Renault shows a mixed picture, with Dutch registrations down 19% but Austrian data up 6%. All three companies report this week. The data is a reading, not a forecast of the final print.

Index Radar: Russell and MSCI Lines Heat Up

The Russell 2000 December review ranks on 30 October. PCVX Vaxcyte sits on the knife-edge, just 0.5% below the Russell 2000 exit line, with $1.2bn of potential forced selling if it drops through. Separately, XRO Xero is a near coin-flip for MSCI World deletion, sitting just 2.3% above the exit line with $437M of passive selling at stake if it falls.