China's AI race moved centre stage this morning. DeepSeek is seeking $7.4 billion in fresh funding at a valuation of up to $59 billion. Tencent and CATL are among the backers. The round would make DeepSeek one of the most valuable AI companies in the world. That headline lands just as options traders are piling into NVDA, which carries 28 active expiry dates this week alone — a sign traders are pricing both opportunity and risk in the AI space.
Anthropic filed for an IPO today. The move sets up a three-way race with OpenAI and SpaceX for Wall Street's attention. US convertible bond markets are already on track for a record year, fuelled largely by AI-linked issuance. Investor appetite for high-growth tech remains strong.
Bayer ruled out spinning off Monsanto for now. The ongoing Roundup litigation makes a clean separation impossible. The German pharma-agri giant remains stuck managing the legal fallout from its 2018 acquisition.
Bears are sharpest on DAVE, where short interest doubled to 32.1% of free float in a week. Chewy sits at an eye-watering 59.7%. Meanwhile, a board member at ILMN filed $107 million in sell trades across just five days. On the buy side, two insiders at HOOD each put in $20 million on the same day — a rare coordinated signal.
PVH reports after the close today with 9.3% of its float shorted. A strong beat could trigger a squeeze. CIEN follows Wednesday morning.
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.
