Market Movements and Earnings Reports Awaited
The U.S. stock market is experiencing quite a bit of instability this week. Various challenges have emerged, from rising oil prices and geopolitical issues to an impressive showing from five of the seven companies reporting solid earnings.
Looking ahead, we have a significant week with Q1 earnings reports on the horizon, as over 100 S&P 500 companies are set to announce their results. Notable names include semiconductor leaders, retail favorites like Palantir and Coinbase, along with consumer giants such as Uber and Disney.
For traders focusing on momentum, AMD’s upcoming report on Tuesday is a major point of interest. The semiconductor sector is essential to the current bull market, primarily driven by the AI surge. AMD has seen an astonishing rise of 270% in the past year, which is significantly higher than NVIDIA’s reported increase back in May.
AMD and Palantir Insights
Options traders expect a 7% uptick for AMD. Call volumes and premiums are notably surpassing puts, though there’s a balance with almost an equal number of calls being bought and sold. This could be due to AMD’s drastic 17% drop after its last report, only to rebound by 75% in April.
Meanwhile, Palantir’s stock shows a somewhat positive outlook. Even though it’s down 30% from its peak, it has surged 550% over the last two years and has shown gains in five of its past seven disclosures. Recent options trading indicates a bullish sentiment, with calls outnumbering sells, making up 62% of the total volume and 72% of the premium. Expectations for Palantir’s upcoming report, which is due after the bell on Monday, are anticipating an 8% shift—slightly below its average change from the prior quarter.
This week demonstrates that both AMD and Palantir offer a possibility for merging hardware and software themes following a stretch of sluggish performance in the latter area. The momentum appears to favor the bulls, with indices like the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 reaching new highs on Friday. In contrast, the VIX index recently dropped to 16.4, marking its lowest point since early February.
