THE MORNING MOMENTUM Friday, July 17, 2026
🌅 PRE-MARKET SNAPSHOT (as of ~8:25am ET)
A broad, real selloff — chips extending yesterday's valuation concerns, and Netflix adding a fresh gut-punch after the bell.
Index | Change |
|---|---|
SPY | −0.8% |
QQQ | −1.8% |
DIA | −0.6% |
IWM | −0.7% |
📰 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Netflix is the story of the morning. Shares are down ~11% premarket after forecasting a second straight quarter of slowing sales growth in last night's earnings call — confirmed by 3.1x normal options volume, real conviction behind the drop, not just an overreaction.
This extends a real chip selloff, not a one-day blip. Thursday's session already saw the S&P fall 0.5% and the Nasdaq drop 1.5-1.8% on growing questions about whether AI-driven chipmaker valuations can justify the spending. Today it's continuing broadly: TSM −3.5%, NVDA −2.6%, AMD −4.1%, INTC −4.5%, MRVL −3.8%, ORCL −2.7% — all confirmed by 2x+ normal options volume. Smaller chip names are getting hit even harder: United Microelectronics −7.3% (3.6x volume), Corning −4.6% (2.1x volume), ASE Technology −4.9% (4.4x volume).
Alphabet is a notable laggard, two days running. Down ~4.6% Thursday (among the Dow's worst performers alongside Goldman Sachs −5.0% and Caterpillar −4.2%) and down another ~2.0% today — worth watching given its own AI-infrastructure spending is part of the same valuation debate hitting chipmakers.
IBM is giving back Wednesday's bounce — down ~1.7% on 2.2x normal options volume, reversing the stabilization we flagged earlier this week.
Not everything is red: UnitedHealth is up slightly (+0.5%) but showing 2.9x normal options volume — notable positioning beyond the modest price move. Abbott (+0.8%) and Citizens Financial (+1.1%) are both confirmed higher on 2x+ normal options volume.
🎯 MOMENTUM PLAYS TO WATCH — Confirmed by Options Flow
NFLX — Down ~11% on 3.1x normal options volume — today's clearest, most consequential confirmed signal.
TSM, NVDA, AMD, INTC, MRVL — All down 2.6-4.5%, each confirmed by 2x+ normal options volume — a genuinely broad chip selloff, not isolated to one name.
GOOGL — Down ~2.1% on 2.4x normal options volume, extending Thursday's weakness.
ABT & CFG — Both up 0.8-1.1% on 2x+ normal options volume — the rare confirmed green names today.
🎲 GUESS THE CHART
This stock more than doubled from April lows to a late-June peak near $256 — driven by AI-datacenter demand for its fiber optic glass — before pulling back sharply, including a ~4.6% drop today on 2.1x normal options volume. Which ticker?
(Scroll back up if you want a hint.)
📅 TODAY'S CALENDAR
Light on major scheduled US data. Watch for any follow-through commentary on chip valuations and whether today's selloff extends into the close or finds support.
⚡ TRADER'S NOTE
Today reads as a real repricing, not noise — the breadth (chips broadly, Alphabet, IBM) and the options-flow confirmation across the board separate this from a single-stock story. Netflix's guidance miss is the news hook, but the underlying chip-valuation debate that's been building since Thursday is the bigger structural question.
⚠️ DISCLAIMER
This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Always do your own research and consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.