US futures are holding higher, with new record highs anticipated. Earnings from Microsoft and Meta have contributed to an uplift in market sentiment. AI-driven stocks continue to excel, with S&P 500 futures up 1.0% and Nasdaq futures rising 1.4%.<\/p>\n
Tech share gains are also impacting other markets, with the Dow increasing by 0.5%. In Europe, the DAX is up 0.5% and CAC 40 up 0.2%, with DAX closing July with nearly 2% gains and CAC 40 gaining just under 3%.<\/p>\n
The Federal Reserve’s stance was not as dovish, but the market has other key drivers for sentiment. The focus remains on tech earnings reporting, especially with further releases expected later.<\/p>\n
Apple and Amazon are expected to release their earnings next, with further analysis to follow. US jobs report is also anticipated, with any major surprises potentially affecting the current narrative.<\/p>\n
With the market clearly being driven by big tech earnings, traders should remain focused on AI-related momentum. We are seeing a powerful trend where positive results from one tech giant lift the entire sector, as evidenced by the S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures rally. The Nasdaq 100 is now up over 22% since the start of the year, showing the strength of this narrative.<\/p>\n
Given the strong performance from Microsoft and Meta, derivative traders should consider bullish positions ahead of Apple and Amazon’s earnings reports later today. Buying short-dated call options on these names, or on the QQQ ETF, is a direct way to speculate on another AI-fueled earnings beat. This strategy is aggressive but aligns with the market’s current one-track mind.<\/p>\n
However, we must also consider risk, as the market is ignoring a less-dovish Fed from yesterday. The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, is currently trading near a low of 13, indicating a high degree of complacency among investors. This low-cost environment makes it cheaper to buy protective put options on the SPY as a hedge against any unexpected earnings misses or a negative market reaction.<\/p>\n
All eyes will shift to tomorrow\u2019s US jobs report, which could easily change the market’s direction. We are looking for a number around the consensus estimate of 190,000 new jobs to keep the current calm. A significant miss on that figure would bring recession fears back to the forefront and could unwind this week’s tech gains.<\/p>\n
The pattern we are witnessing is very similar to the AI rally that began back in late 2023, where a handful of stocks drove the majority of index gains. In this environment, selling out-of-the-money put options on high-quality tech stocks can be a viable strategy to collect premium. This profits from the stocks either rising, staying flat, or only falling slightly.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US futures climb as tech earnings boost sentiment; AI stocks surge; markets await Apple, Amazon results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":16987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}