Big Tech Earnings Descend, Bears Load Up on Puts

Earnings Week Dominates

The most important earnings stretch of the year starts Tuesday. Microsoft and Amazon both report Wednesday 29 October. Intel drops the same day. Together the three carry a combined market cap above $7 trillion. Options markets are already pricing in the risk. Put activity on all three has picked up sharply this week, and Alphabet is drawing similar defensive flows ahead of its own print. Analysts trimmed targets on GE and Abbott after their recent results, a cautious signal heading into a busy slate.

Bears and Shorts in Sync

Short sellers and options traders are pointing the same direction on two names. CoreWeave saw its short interest rise 3.6 percentage points in seven days to 24.8% of free float. Its ORTEX options negative bets rank top in the mid-cap space. The stock is down 24% year-to-date and its RSI has fallen to 25.75, deep in oversold territory. Lucid Group sits at 64.7% short interest of free float with a short score of 86.4. ORTEX Alt Data shows registered battery-electric vehicles in the US state fleet fell to 13,272 in July 2026, the smallest July reading in four years, giving bears a real-economy backdrop.

European Autos Face Tough Quarter

Mercedes-Benz reports Wednesday. Dutch car registration data, which leads Mercedes revenue by 26 days with a strong fit per ORTEX Alt Data, is running 6% below the same quarter last year. Volkswagen and Renault both report Thursday, with Austrian registration data running down 6% year on year for VW.

Index Watch

Vaxcyte sits at the most precise knife-edge in this cycle. At $9.5B market cap it is 0.5% below the Russell 2000 exit line and 0.5% above the Russell 1000 entry line simultaneously. The 30 October rank date settles both calls. A deletion from the Russell 2000 would force $1.2B of passive selling. McCormick carries the highest MSCI World deletion probability at 77%, with $735M of forced selling attached if the 11 November announcement confirms it.