Big Tech Earnings Week Arrives With Bears Circling EVs

The Week That Matters

Wednesday is the centrepiece of the earnings calendar. MSFT and GOOGL both report fiscal results after the close. AMZN and INTC follow on Thursday. The four names carry enormous weight for the broader tech sector. Options markets are already positioning defensively. Negative bets are heaviest in semiconductors, with MU, AMD and NVDA all showing elevated put flows. Analysts lifted the MSFT consensus target to $603.24, while Susquehanna raised its V target to $480, a 12% jump.

EV Pressure and Nuclear Alerts

California ZEV registrations fell 37% year-on-year to 80,392 vehicles in July 2026, the smallest Q3 reading in three years, per ORTEX Alt Data. Short sellers are reflecting that stress. Lucid Group short interest hit 64.3% of free float, up 14 percentage points in a month. The stock is down 44% over three months. In Europe, Mercedes-Benz reports Wednesday. Dutch car sales data, which leads MBG revenue by 26 days with a strong fit, is running 6% below the same quarter last year. Two nuclear utilities also flag operational stress. ORTEX reactor output data shows ETR and PCG both running 10 standard deviations below their own history.

Europe: Iveco Deal and Index Exits

Tata Motors' agreed cash offer for Iveco Group carries a 93% completion probability. If it completes, Iveco exits the STOXX Europe 600 and related indices, forcing roughly $225M of combined selling. The index announcement is expected as soon as Thursday. In Sweden, Lifco AB's probability of deletion from the OMX Stockholm 30 jumped from 2% to 52% overnight, per ORTEX Index Rebalance Radar. The stock sits just 0.8% above the exit line.

Russell Rebalance Countdown

The Russell 2000 December review ranks on Thursday. Old National Bancorp sits exactly on both the Russell 2000 exit line and the Russell 1000 entry line simultaneously, both at 55% probability. A single Thursday close resolves both. Oscar Health faces the mirror situation, with $1B of potential tracker selling if it drops below the exit threshold.