The day's biggest theme is semiconductors. NVDA options activity hit its highest breadth of any name tracked this week. Jensen Huang's trip to China fired up bullish traders across chip names. AMD and MU both saw heavy contested flow. MU is up 179% year-to-date. Both names carry days-to-cover below one day. Applied Materials reports tomorrow — results will test whether equipment orders match the bullish mood.
LCID is today's most volatile story. Shares surged Wednesday with no clear catalyst. Short utilization has now hit 100% — matching the stock's 52-week peak. SI % of Free Float jumped 28% in one week to 18.4%. Cost to borrow is down 14% to 11.2%. Bears are fully deployed and squeezed. That combination of surging price and maxed-out utilization makes this a name to watch closely.
Across the Atlantic, UK bonds are under serious stress. The 30-year gilt yield hit its highest level this century. Markets are reacting to political uncertainty around Prime Minister Starmer. Cabinet pressure on his leadership is spooking fixed-income investors. European AI stocks, by contrast, are rallying. Investors are hunting the few pure AI plays available on European exchanges.
Cisco Systems reports after today's close. AI infrastructure demand signals will be the key number to watch. Separately, Iran's foreign minister accused Kuwait of detaining Iranian nationals — a headline that briefly moved oil and broad market futures. The IEA also warned of further price spikes as inventories draw down fast.
ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
