To The Moon

Color Legend 🔴 Red: Broke above/below the forecast range, or broke above/below the simulated strike alternative. 🟠 Orange: Briefly broke above/below the range, but closed within the strike range. I. This Week's Simulation Results: ✅ All 4 Trades Profitable TSLA Sell Call: 8/7 expiry 340 — Note: Ample buffer on the upside. AAPL Sell Put: 8/14 expiry 290 — Note: No material negative surprises from earnings. AMD Sell Put: 8/14 expiry 400 — Note: Sustainable (roll to next week's 400 Put). INTC Sell Put: 8/14 expiry 90 — Note: Sustainable (roll to next week's 90 Put). The seller environment was broadly favorable this week, but there is an important risk reminder in the broader market section below. II. Broader Market Assessment (SPY & QQQ) Coordinated U.S.-Japan FX intervention + surging eq

$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$ Friday's nonfarm payrolls data is the big test, but Wednesday's ADP small employment report showed only 44,000 new jobs — missing expectations — which has made the market less certain about a September rate hike. It's not out of the question that SPY could retrace to 760 over the next two weeks. After that pullback, it's expected to remain in a high-level consolidation range. $SK hynix(SKHY)$ All seven storage companies have now reported earnings: Samsung, Hynix, Micron, SNDK, Kioxia, WDC, and STX. There's nothing wrong with the earnings themselves — the only problem is that prices got too expensive and got in the way of the cloud providers. How could a Korean storage comp

One-sentence theme for today: Storage earnings are wrapping up and entering a valuation re-pricing phase; gold is breaking out on rising rate-cut expectations; SPCX faces its first massive lock-up expiry. The common thread across all three: it's not a time to chase highs, but a stage to position cautiously at support levels via Sell Puts. I. Storage Sector: Earnings Behind Us, Entering Valuation Adjustment Phase SanDisk (SNDK): Down ~10.7% pre-market, breaking below the 120-day moving average, with next-quarter revenue guidance below consensus. Western Digital (WDC): Down ~14% pre-market, still holding above the 120-day MA; results fell short of the elevated expectations set by STX's earnings. Key variable: SNDK disclosed an aggregate LTA revenue floor of $93.9 billion — establishing a val

$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$ This is the most aggressive single-leg bullish bet I've ever seen: $SPY 20260821 785.0 CALL$  — a block trade buying the August 21-expiry 785 call, opening 85,000 contracts. $SPY 20260814 775.0 CALL$— a block trade buying the August 14-expiry 775 call, opening 85,000 contracts. $SPY 20260918 820.0 CALL$ — a block trade buying the September 18-expiry 820 call, opening 26,000 contracts. Notably, the 785 call is a roll — the previously mentioned $SPY 20260821

I. Fundamentals SanDisk and Kioxia are 25-year NAND partners, jointly operating the world's largest NAND production facility. Kioxia's earnings have a decisive impact on SNDK. Bullish: Kioxia's Q2 pricing rose +70%, and long-term agreements (LTAs) increased — signaling hyperscaler confidence in demand durability. Bearish: Kioxia's Q1 results and guidance missed expectations, raising concerns about a slowdown in the AI flash memory pricing cycle. Kioxia subsequently announced a 1-for-3 stock split and a buyback of up to ¥800 billion to stabilize sentiment. Key observation: With the stock having already fully corrected in July, Kioxia did not decline post-earnings. It is reasonable to expect SNDK may behave similarly, with price action likely oscillating within the expected range after earni

$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$ I think these two lines are all the headline this article needs today. No need to analyze any other stocks. SPY has rallied to 775 — just close your eyes and pick any stock, and you'd make money. SPY dropped a massive block trade on the market — the August 21-expiry 775 call $SPY 20260821 775.0 CALL$ opened 50,000 contracts (buy-side). And today, more large bullish call trades continued to open during the session: 49,700 contracts of the August 14-expiry 775 call l$SPY 20260814 775.0 CALL$ , and 20,000 contracts of the September 18-expiry 820 call

I. Fundamentals: Long-Term Value vs. Near-Term Supply Shock 1. Long-term bull case unchanged, but short-term price under four layers of pressure ① tactical concerns over the upcoming lock-up expiry; ② AI business uncertainty; ③ potential Tesla merger complexity; ④ lower-than-expected passive index buying. As the lock-up expiry passes, the stock is expected to stabilize at some level. 2. Valuation: SOTP stress test suggests AI business is nearly free At the current price of approximately $108/share (~$1.4 trillion valuation), a sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) stress test suggests that just the Space + Connectivity segments alone already support the bulk of the value: Space, benchmarked against Blue Origin, is valued at roughly $390–650 billion; Connectivity is conservatively valued at over $748 bil

I. Fundamentals Citi maintains a Buy rating, naming AMD its top growth semiconductor pick for the second half of 2026. Q2 revenue is expected at $11.3 billion / EPS $1.66, and Q3 revenue at $14.0 billion / EPS $2.28 — both above consensus, driven primarily by upside in server CPUs and AI GPUs. Data center sales for 2026 are projected at $33.7 billion (+103% YoY). Meta has emerged as a key new customer (custom MI450, six-year gigawatt-scale deal with ~$15 billion revenue per GW). AI sales are expected to reach $33 billion in 2027 and $50.8 billion in 2028. TAM has been significantly revised upward: AI accelerators to $1.4 trillion by 2030, data center CPUs to $220 billion (both with CAGRs exceeding 45%). Risk: The stock is already fully priced, with capacity sold out, limiting near-term ups

Noteworthy Points 1. AMD and SPCX Report Earnings After the Close on 8/4 (Tuesday) Given that both ARM and INTC delivered earnings beats, AMD, as the leading competitor in the same space, is unlikely to post numbers inferior to those two. Furthermore, AMD's post-earnings price movement will likely have a knock-on effect on ARM and INTC (sector-linked co-movement). 2. SPCX: High Growth Potential, But Two Near-Term Wildcards While SPCX possesses extremely high growth potential, two factors warrant attention: On 8/6 (two trading days after earnings), $116 billion in locked-up shares will become eligible for sale — the potential selling pressure should not be overlooked; On 8/3, Elon Musk echoed a follower's view on X that "this is a once-in-a-lifetime buying opportunity" — a bullish sentiment

"Stock God" Leopold was margin-called and forced to transfer his holdings — Citadel Securities swooped in and picked them up at a bargain price. The very next day, the market rebounded sharply with a massive surge. There's something worth reminding everyone about: Citadel Securities acquired Morgan Stanley's options market-making business in 2025 and is likely the largest options market maker in the market today. As we all know, options liquidity is provided by market makers, so Leopold's large block buy orders were essentially visible chips in the eyes of the market makers. This reminds me of the old saying — "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind." The large block trades I've been tracking might just be fat lambs waiting to be sheared in the eyes of the market makers

Pullbacks suck. One day everything's grinding higher on AI euphoria, the next you're watching the major indexes drop 5-10% while your portfolio takes a beating. I've lived through enough of these—2022, the 2025 wobbles, and now this latest bout of volatility—to know that sitting there frozen isn't a plan. Options can be a powerful tool here, but only if you use them with discipline. They're not lottery tickets. First, Get Your Mindset Right A pullback isn't automatically a crash. Markets can correct on profit-taking, Fed jitters, or rotation out of overvalued names while the economy stays decent. Your goal isn't to call the exact bottom. It's to protect what you have, reduce risk, or position for the bounce without blowing up your account. Practical Options Strategies for Pullbacks 1. Prot

I. Spending + Debt Issuance + Cash Flow Risks For this earnings report, Amazon faces the risk of upward revisions to capital expenditures or operating cash flow falling short of expectations. Competition for retail market share remains intense, which could further pressure retail margins. Amazon commands a significant share of the credit market, coupled with persistent oversupply from ongoing bond issuance — its credit performance is expected to lag behind the sector. Amazon is projected to add another $25–35 billion in debt by the end of 2026. Even the bond market is pricing in risks from Amazon's debt issuance and spending — this originates from the same valuation-killing dynamic seen with META and GOOGL. The make-or-break factor on the equity side is whether AWS growth can justify these

I. Core Perspective: Apple's Key Factor Is Not Capex, but Expectation Realization Unlike MSFT / META / GOOGL, Apple is not a story of heavy AI spending and compressed free cash flow — it is a cash cow by nature. Therefore, for this earnings report, the specific numbers are not the most critical factor. The key question is: Apple has already risen 16.88% this month — have the good news already been priced into the stock? The current price sits at approximately 32x FY27 P/E, approaching valuation peaks. That is the true variable that will determine post-earnings price direction. June quarter iPhone likely beat slightly, but September quarter gross margin guidance may be on the low side, with gross margins expected around 46.8% (consensus 47.4%). Services growth faces headwinds, with the App

$Micron Technology(MU)$ $SK hynix(SKHY)$ recently rebounded alongside the broader memory and semiconductor sectors after pulling back sharply from their recent highs. Both stocks surged around 18% on July 30, quickly recovering part of their earlier losses. The rally was mainly supported by improving market expectations for the memory supply outlook, as well as continued investment in AI infrastructure by major technology companies. From a fundamentals perspective, Micron’s latest results showed record revenue and earnings for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026. Management also provided a stronger outlook for the fourth quarter. However, a sharp one-day rebound does not ne

Amid soaring oil prices and a tech stock sell-off, $HSBC Holdings PLC(HSBC)$ maintains a bullish stance: Five reasons support continued gains in US stocks HSBC's bullish view on US stocks is based on five key assessments: global economic growth expectations have been significantly revised downwards, making better-than-expected data more likely in the future; corporate earnings have exceeded pessimistic expectations for several consecutive quarters, continuously validating fundamental resilience; US stock valuations are already lower than at the initial stages of geopolitical conflicts, providing ample safety margins; US Treasury yields have room to fall after a sharp rise, potentially providing support for the stock market; market funds have not l

[Love][Smile]Hi~Tigers Amid wild overnight swings on US equities, major corporates released a flood of critical updates across AI, semiconductors, cloud and aerospace sectors. Mixed signals have widened market divergence. 1. Double Positive Catalysts for OpenAI OpenAI’s CFO revealed the company’s annualized revenue in July surpassed total Q2 revenue, marking accelerating commercial traction for generative AI. In addition, Li Weng, co-founder of Thinking Machines, rejoins OpenAI. The return of top technical talent signals OpenAI’s ambition to reinforce its leading position in frontier AI model research. 2. Microsoft Cloud Eases Capex Fears $Microsoft(MSFT)$ delivered stronger-than-expected cloud growth in its quarterly results. The resilient cloud

The July FOMC confirmed no rate hike — that's good. The U.S. stock market really can't handle any more turbulence right now. It may seem "reasonable" that only South Korea and Japan are plummeting, but in reality, it's not reasonable at all. The 100,000-contract IGV weekly call position $IGV 20260731 88.0 CALL$ was closed before Tuesday's close. Although IGV continued to rise today, for weekly options with less than five days to expiration, the trading discipline is exactly that — open on the day, close on the same day or the next. The noteworthy point is that I initially thought this trade was betting on upside from MSFT and META earnings, and that after closing it would at least roll into a new position. But the block trad

I. Fundamentals: Revenue and EPS Expected to Beat Consensus Q2 results are expected to beat consensus on both revenue and EPS, with additional upside to EPS driven by the cost-cutting effect of a 10% headcount reduction in May and a 49% month-over-month decline in job postings during Q2. AI integration + external compute sales are emerging as new growth drivers. Based on rumors that Meta may reach a compute leasing agreement with Anthropic, the market has priced in an additional $5 billion in AI compute revenue expectations by 2027. The bull case is well-rounded (stable advertising + AI monetization + cost reduction + reasonable valuation). However, like Microsoft and Google, Meta is one of the heaviest capex spenders among tech giants — with both AI infrastructure and Reality Labs burning

I. Fundamentals: AI Execution Remains the Core Debate Microsoft reports Q4 FY26 results after the close on July 29. Market focus centers on three points: Azure growth following new capacity rollouts, the pressure of capital expenditures on margins and free cash flow, and M365 Copilot adoption rates along with broader AI monetization capability. Azure year-over-year growth is the key metric to monitor, with company guidance at 39–40%. FY26 Q4 capital expenditures (including leases) are expected to reach $42 billion, up 32% quarter-over-quarter and 74% year-over-year, compressing free cash flow from $25.5 billion last quarter to $14.4 billion. M365 Copilot added 5 million paid seats in FY26 Q3, bringing the total to 20 million, with AI annual recurring revenue (ARR) exceeding $37 billion, up

This week's price action in U.S. equities is critical for the market trend over the next several weeks — above all the FOMC decision due early Thursday Beijing time. The U.S. indices have arrived at a very important support level, and once a key variable pushes them into choosing a direction, the broader medium-term trend could change. The current calm may therefore be brewing sharp volatility in the back half of the week. First, the latest developments on the technical side As you can see, the Nasdaq has now reached a very critical level. On the head-and-shoulders top pattern, the formation can already be treated as a breakdown of the head structure; by conventional technical projection, the subsequent downside would theoretically be roughly equal to the distance from the head to the curr

Color Legend 🔴 Red: Broke above/below the forecast range, or broke above/below the simulated strike alternative. 🟠 Orange: Briefly broke above/below the range, but closed within the strike range. I. This Week's Simulation Results: ✅ All 4 Trades Profitable TSLA Sell Call: 8/7 expiry 340 — Note: Ample buffer on the upside. AAPL Sell Put: 8/14 expiry 290 — Note: No material negative surprises from earnings. AMD Sell Put: 8/14 expiry 400 — Note: Sustainable (roll to next week's 400 Put). INTC Sell Put: 8/14 expiry 90 — Note: Sustainable (roll to next week's 90 Put). The seller environment was broadly favorable this week, but there is an important risk reminder in the broader market section below. II. Broader Market Assessment (SPY & QQQ) Coordinated U.S.-Japan FX intervention + surging eq

$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$ Friday's nonfarm payrolls data is the big test, but Wednesday's ADP small employment report showed only 44,000 new jobs — missing expectations — which has made the market less certain about a September rate hike. It's not out of the question that SPY could retrace to 760 over the next two weeks. After that pullback, it's expected to remain in a high-level consolidation range. $SK hynix(SKHY)$ All seven storage companies have now reported earnings: Samsung, Hynix, Micron, SNDK, Kioxia, WDC, and STX. There's nothing wrong with the earnings themselves — the only problem is that prices got too expensive and got in the way of the cloud providers. How could a Korean storage comp

One-sentence theme for today: Storage earnings are wrapping up and entering a valuation re-pricing phase; gold is breaking out on rising rate-cut expectations; SPCX faces its first massive lock-up expiry. The common thread across all three: it's not a time to chase highs, but a stage to position cautiously at support levels via Sell Puts. I. Storage Sector: Earnings Behind Us, Entering Valuation Adjustment Phase SanDisk (SNDK): Down ~10.7% pre-market, breaking below the 120-day moving average, with next-quarter revenue guidance below consensus. Western Digital (WDC): Down ~14% pre-market, still holding above the 120-day MA; results fell short of the elevated expectations set by STX's earnings. Key variable: SNDK disclosed an aggregate LTA revenue floor of $93.9 billion — establishing a val

$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$ This is the most aggressive single-leg bullish bet I've ever seen: $SPY 20260821 785.0 CALL$  — a block trade buying the August 21-expiry 785 call, opening 85,000 contracts. $SPY 20260814 775.0 CALL$— a block trade buying the August 14-expiry 775 call, opening 85,000 contracts. $SPY 20260918 820.0 CALL$ — a block trade buying the September 18-expiry 820 call, opening 26,000 contracts. Notably, the 785 call is a roll — the previously mentioned $SPY 20260821

$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$ I think these two lines are all the headline this article needs today. No need to analyze any other stocks. SPY has rallied to 775 — just close your eyes and pick any stock, and you'd make money. SPY dropped a massive block trade on the market — the August 21-expiry 775 call $SPY 20260821 775.0 CALL$ opened 50,000 contracts (buy-side). And today, more large bullish call trades continued to open during the session: 49,700 contracts of the August 14-expiry 775 call l$SPY 20260814 775.0 CALL$ , and 20,000 contracts of the September 18-expiry 820 call

I. Fundamentals SanDisk and Kioxia are 25-year NAND partners, jointly operating the world's largest NAND production facility. Kioxia's earnings have a decisive impact on SNDK. Bullish: Kioxia's Q2 pricing rose +70%, and long-term agreements (LTAs) increased — signaling hyperscaler confidence in demand durability. Bearish: Kioxia's Q1 results and guidance missed expectations, raising concerns about a slowdown in the AI flash memory pricing cycle. Kioxia subsequently announced a 1-for-3 stock split and a buyback of up to ¥800 billion to stabilize sentiment. Key observation: With the stock having already fully corrected in July, Kioxia did not decline post-earnings. It is reasonable to expect SNDK may behave similarly, with price action likely oscillating within the expected range after earni

I. Fundamentals: Long-Term Value vs. Near-Term Supply Shock 1. Long-term bull case unchanged, but short-term price under four layers of pressure ① tactical concerns over the upcoming lock-up expiry; ② AI business uncertainty; ③ potential Tesla merger complexity; ④ lower-than-expected passive index buying. As the lock-up expiry passes, the stock is expected to stabilize at some level. 2. Valuation: SOTP stress test suggests AI business is nearly free At the current price of approximately $108/share (~$1.4 trillion valuation), a sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) stress test suggests that just the Space + Connectivity segments alone already support the bulk of the value: Space, benchmarked against Blue Origin, is valued at roughly $390–650 billion; Connectivity is conservatively valued at over $748 bil

I. Fundamentals Citi maintains a Buy rating, naming AMD its top growth semiconductor pick for the second half of 2026. Q2 revenue is expected at $11.3 billion / EPS $1.66, and Q3 revenue at $14.0 billion / EPS $2.28 — both above consensus, driven primarily by upside in server CPUs and AI GPUs. Data center sales for 2026 are projected at $33.7 billion (+103% YoY). Meta has emerged as a key new customer (custom MI450, six-year gigawatt-scale deal with ~$15 billion revenue per GW). AI sales are expected to reach $33 billion in 2027 and $50.8 billion in 2028. TAM has been significantly revised upward: AI accelerators to $1.4 trillion by 2030, data center CPUs to $220 billion (both with CAGRs exceeding 45%). Risk: The stock is already fully priced, with capacity sold out, limiting near-term ups

Noteworthy Points 1. AMD and SPCX Report Earnings After the Close on 8/4 (Tuesday) Given that both ARM and INTC delivered earnings beats, AMD, as the leading competitor in the same space, is unlikely to post numbers inferior to those two. Furthermore, AMD's post-earnings price movement will likely have a knock-on effect on ARM and INTC (sector-linked co-movement). 2. SPCX: High Growth Potential, But Two Near-Term Wildcards While SPCX possesses extremely high growth potential, two factors warrant attention: On 8/6 (two trading days after earnings), $116 billion in locked-up shares will become eligible for sale — the potential selling pressure should not be overlooked; On 8/3, Elon Musk echoed a follower's view on X that "this is a once-in-a-lifetime buying opportunity" — a bullish sentiment

"Stock God" Leopold was margin-called and forced to transfer his holdings — Citadel Securities swooped in and picked them up at a bargain price. The very next day, the market rebounded sharply with a massive surge. There's something worth reminding everyone about: Citadel Securities acquired Morgan Stanley's options market-making business in 2025 and is likely the largest options market maker in the market today. As we all know, options liquidity is provided by market makers, so Leopold's large block buy orders were essentially visible chips in the eyes of the market makers. This reminds me of the old saying — "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind." The large block trades I've been tracking might just be fat lambs waiting to be sheared in the eyes of the market makers

I. Fundamentals: Revenue and EPS Expected to Beat Consensus Q2 results are expected to beat consensus on both revenue and EPS, with additional upside to EPS driven by the cost-cutting effect of a 10% headcount reduction in May and a 49% month-over-month decline in job postings during Q2. AI integration + external compute sales are emerging as new growth drivers. Based on rumors that Meta may reach a compute leasing agreement with Anthropic, the market has priced in an additional $5 billion in AI compute revenue expectations by 2027. The bull case is well-rounded (stable advertising + AI monetization + cost reduction + reasonable valuation). However, like Microsoft and Google, Meta is one of the heaviest capex spenders among tech giants — with both AI infrastructure and Reality Labs burning

The July FOMC confirmed no rate hike — that's good. The U.S. stock market really can't handle any more turbulence right now. It may seem "reasonable" that only South Korea and Japan are plummeting, but in reality, it's not reasonable at all. The 100,000-contract IGV weekly call position $IGV 20260731 88.0 CALL$ was closed before Tuesday's close. Although IGV continued to rise today, for weekly options with less than five days to expiration, the trading discipline is exactly that — open on the day, close on the same day or the next. The noteworthy point is that I initially thought this trade was betting on upside from MSFT and META earnings, and that after closing it would at least roll into a new position. But the block trad

This week's price action in U.S. equities is critical for the market trend over the next several weeks — above all the FOMC decision due early Thursday Beijing time. The U.S. indices have arrived at a very important support level, and once a key variable pushes them into choosing a direction, the broader medium-term trend could change. The current calm may therefore be brewing sharp volatility in the back half of the week. First, the latest developments on the technical side As you can see, the Nasdaq has now reached a very critical level. On the head-and-shoulders top pattern, the formation can already be treated as a breakdown of the head structure; by conventional technical projection, the subsequent downside would theoretically be roughly equal to the distance from the head to the curr

[Love][Smile]Hi~Tigers Amid wild overnight swings on US equities, major corporates released a flood of critical updates across AI, semiconductors, cloud and aerospace sectors. Mixed signals have widened market divergence. 1. Double Positive Catalysts for OpenAI OpenAI’s CFO revealed the company’s annualized revenue in July surpassed total Q2 revenue, marking accelerating commercial traction for generative AI. In addition, Li Weng, co-founder of Thinking Machines, rejoins OpenAI. The return of top technical talent signals OpenAI’s ambition to reinforce its leading position in frontier AI model research. 2. Microsoft Cloud Eases Capex Fears $Microsoft(MSFT)$ delivered stronger-than-expected cloud growth in its quarterly results. The resilient cloud

Amid soaring oil prices and a tech stock sell-off, $HSBC Holdings PLC(HSBC)$ maintains a bullish stance: Five reasons support continued gains in US stocks HSBC's bullish view on US stocks is based on five key assessments: global economic growth expectations have been significantly revised downwards, making better-than-expected data more likely in the future; corporate earnings have exceeded pessimistic expectations for several consecutive quarters, continuously validating fundamental resilience; US stock valuations are already lower than at the initial stages of geopolitical conflicts, providing ample safety margins; US Treasury yields have room to fall after a sharp rise, potentially providing support for the stock market; market funds have not l

$Ecolab(ECL)$ is generally associated with industrial cleaning, sanitation and water treatment. Its latest results reveal a less obvious growth engine: cooling and water-management systems for semiconductor plants and data centres. Second-quarter sales reached approximately $4.42 billion, while adjusted earnings increased 11% to $2.09 per share. Organic sales grew 5%, supported by pricing and strength in Life Sciences, Food & Beverage, Digital and Global High-Tech. Management raised expected 2026 adjusted earnings to $8.05–$8.25 per share. Ecolab’s investor-relations results page provides the earnings materials and filing. The Global High-Tech platform is approaching $1.5 billion in annualized sales. Management expects the business to reach app

$Micron Technology(MU)$ $SK hynix(SKHY)$ recently rebounded alongside the broader memory and semiconductor sectors after pulling back sharply from their recent highs. Both stocks surged around 18% on July 30, quickly recovering part of their earlier losses. The rally was mainly supported by improving market expectations for the memory supply outlook, as well as continued investment in AI infrastructure by major technology companies. From a fundamentals perspective, Micron’s latest results showed record revenue and earnings for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026. Management also provided a stronger outlook for the fourth quarter. However, a sharp one-day rebound does not ne

I. Spending + Debt Issuance + Cash Flow Risks For this earnings report, Amazon faces the risk of upward revisions to capital expenditures or operating cash flow falling short of expectations. Competition for retail market share remains intense, which could further pressure retail margins. Amazon commands a significant share of the credit market, coupled with persistent oversupply from ongoing bond issuance — its credit performance is expected to lag behind the sector. Amazon is projected to add another $25–35 billion in debt by the end of 2026. Even the bond market is pricing in risks from Amazon's debt issuance and spending — this originates from the same valuation-killing dynamic seen with META and GOOGL. The make-or-break factor on the equity side is whether AWS growth can justify these

I. Core Perspective: Apple's Key Factor Is Not Capex, but Expectation Realization Unlike MSFT / META / GOOGL, Apple is not a story of heavy AI spending and compressed free cash flow — it is a cash cow by nature. Therefore, for this earnings report, the specific numbers are not the most critical factor. The key question is: Apple has already risen 16.88% this month — have the good news already been priced into the stock? The current price sits at approximately 32x FY27 P/E, approaching valuation peaks. That is the true variable that will determine post-earnings price direction. June quarter iPhone likely beat slightly, but September quarter gross margin guidance may be on the low side, with gross margins expected around 46.8% (consensus 47.4%). Services growth faces headwinds, with the App

I. Fundamentals: AI Execution Remains the Core Debate Microsoft reports Q4 FY26 results after the close on July 29. Market focus centers on three points: Azure growth following new capacity rollouts, the pressure of capital expenditures on margins and free cash flow, and M365 Copilot adoption rates along with broader AI monetization capability. Azure year-over-year growth is the key metric to monitor, with company guidance at 39–40%. FY26 Q4 capital expenditures (including leases) are expected to reach $42 billion, up 32% quarter-over-quarter and 74% year-over-year, compressing free cash flow from $25.5 billion last quarter to $14.4 billion. M365 Copilot added 5 million paid seats in FY26 Q3, bringing the total to 20 million, with AI annual recurring revenue (ARR) exceeding $37 billion, up