Earnings Week Puts Semis in the Crosshairs

Options markets are pricing in a turbulent week. Big Tech reporting season is in full swing, with AMZN, MSFT, INTC and GOOGL all due to report Q3 results imminently.

The chip sector is where sentiment has turned sharpest. KLAC trades with an RSI of just 23, a deeply oversold reading. The stock has lost 88% year-to-date, and analysts still see 60% upside from current levels. That gap between price and target makes KLAC a focus for directional options bets either way. LRCX sits nearby, up 79% YTD but with a separate sell-off this week flagged by news of a 10% drop in peer ONTO.

Intel heads into earnings with an RSI of 33. The stock is up 136% YTD but has stalled. Ahead of the Q3 print, options traders face a binary: Intel's turnaround narrative versus persistent margin pressure.

A macro read cuts in favour of the bulls. Taiwan's export orders hit TWD 36,223 hundred millions in September 2026, the largest September reading on record since 1984, according to ORTEX Alt Data. That kind of demand signal from Asia's tech supply chain tends to support earnings beats for US chip equipment names.

Amazon carries the biggest narrative weight this week. Analysts see 34% upside. Its RSI of 43 is neutral but the stock is well below its 52-week highs, making the earnings reaction asymmetric.

One index risk to watch: PCVX sits on a knife-edge between Russell 2000 deletion (which would force $1.2B of selling) and Russell 1000 addition ($430M of buying), with the 30 October rank date settling it. That binary flow dynamic is exactly the type of setup that attracts large options positions ahead of a hard deadline.