Today is turning into a massive tech reckoning on Wall Street, with the Nasdaq sliding about 2.5% as the market sharply re-evaluates the sheer scale of Big Tech’s AI spending.
Following Alphabet’s historic wipeout yesterday, a fresh round of earnings misses has triggered an aggressive tech selloff, prompting institutional investors to rotate heavily out of high-growth tech and into traditional defensive safe havens like healthcare and consumer staples.
Intel (INTC) has cratered over 27%, tracking toward one of its worst single-day drops on record. The chipmaker issued disastrous Q4 revenue guidance ($15B–$16B vs. the $17.1B expected), blaming a severe, unexpected freeze in the core PC market. Its core Client Computing revenue dropped 5%, dragging the broader semiconductor sector down with it.
Amazon (AMZN) is down roughly 2% to 4%, recovering slightly from a 7% pre-market plunge. While its cloud business remains robust, the top and bottom lines missed expectations. The real point of anxiety for the market is cash burn: Amazon reported a staggering $42.4 billion in negative free cash flow on a trailing 12-month basis, driven by its relentless $220 billion capital expenditure projection to fund AI infrastructure.
The Rotation Is Real: While the tech-heavy Nasdaq and S&P 500 tech sectors are taking a beating (down over 3.4%), the Dow Jones Industrial Average is outperforming. Traditional names like Procter & Gamble, Walmart, and Coca-Cola are catching the capital inflows.
Energy & Macro Pressures: Beyond tech, commodities are highly volatile. WTI crude has pushed past $104 a barrel and Brent is up at $113 on escalating tensions in the Middle East, giving a localized boost to oil majors like ExxonMobil and Chevron (who reported this morning). Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield has dropped back down to 4.91%, and Bitcoin has slipped back under $77,000 following a major security hack at Binance.
I feel exhausted already!
Yesterday's bullish options flow is performing solidly across the board, with all 15 names positive and averaging +3.2% gains led by RIVN's +5.2% surge. The bearish names are following through decisively, down an average of 6.8% with Reddit taking the hardest hit at -24.1%, suggesting strong conviction in both directional trades. The clean sweep on both sides indicates the options activity was well-timed and tracking true.
Note - that I am not selecting trades after the fact - these are the trades that came through my Discord flow yesterday
