TSMC Just Told Wall Street: You're Still Underestimating AI Global foundry leader $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$   released its Q4 2025 earnings, and the company, playing the role of the ultimate "shovel seller" in the AI gold rush, delivered a quarter that beat expectations across revenue, gross margin, and net profit, alongside long-term growth guidance that exceeded market forecasts. Three Things to Watch 2026 Full-Year and Long-Term AI Guidance Blew Past Expectations; AI Remains the Growth Pillar The Street had consensus expectations for TSMC's 2026 full-year USD revenue growth at approximately 25% YoY. Management's guidance? 30% YoY growth. Last quarter, $Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM.US)$ manage

Silver Flips Nvidia. The Milestone Is Historic—But Is the Best Yet to Come? 2026 has flipped the script. Mega-cap tech is no longer leading. Year to date, the QQQ is flat (-0.08%), the SPY is barely positive (+0.68%), while IWM is up +5.28%—a clear shift away from large-cap growth. The most striking signal: $XAG/USD (XAGUSD.FX)$ has overtaken $NVIDIA(NVDA)$   to become the second most valuable asset globally. Silver is up +25.30% YTD, while Nvidia is down -3.53% and $Alphabet(GOOG)$   is up just +5.89%. This isn't a marginal rotation—it's a regime change. Capital is moving out of crowded tech leaders and into hard assets, with si

800V High-Voltage DC Becomes Essential for Data Centers. These Companies Are Worth Watching Last year, $NVIDIA(NVDA)$   officially released the white paper "800-Volt DC (Direct Current) Architecture for Next-Generation AI Infrastructure" at the North American OCP Global Summit, clearly stating that 800V High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) will become the mainstream power supply solution for future AI data centers, marking the industry's transition from traditional UPS AC architecture to high-voltage DC architecture. Additionally, $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$   plans to put into operation a 1GW-class AI data center "Prometheus

China Cybersecurity Ban Report Sparks a Selloff. What Matters Next Reuters reported on January 14, 2026 that Chinese authorities have instructed domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software from more than a dozen U.S. and Israeli firms, citing national security concerns and fears that foreign software could transmit sensitive data abroad. The list includes $Broadcom (AVGO.US)$ -owned VMware, $Palo Alto Networks (PANW.US)$ , $Fortinet (FTNT.US)$ , and $Check Point Software (CHKP.US)$ , and also names like $Rapid7 (RPD.US)$ , $CrowdStrike (CRWD.US)$ , $SentinelOne (S.US)$ , $Alphabet-C (GOOG.US)$ -owned Mandiant, and Wiz. Which stocks got hit On the day of the report, Reuters said $Broadcom(AVGO)$  

Quantum Computing 2026: The Key Things Investors Should Watch Quantum computing is real tech, but it's still a long way from "mass-market profits." The sector's repeated hype cycles over the past year make more sense if you treat it as the overlap of three forces: a world-changing story, theme-driven capital flows, and Big Tech / government budgets slowly turning imagination into line items. For public-market investors, the most practical mindset is not "When will quantum finally arrive?” but: this is a high-volatility, milestone-driven space. In the near term, prices tend to move on catalysts and valuation resets; in the long term, the winners are likely determined by error correction (fault tolerance), scalability, and whether orders/cash flow can keep up with burn. 1) Where the tech rea

Intel Pole Vaults Above Nvidia in Short Volume Ranking, AMD's, SMCI's Rise $Intel(INTC)$  's continued rally to a two-year high gained more attention from short sellers, sending their combined their trading volume way above those who were betting against the biggest player in AI chips, $NVIDIA(NVDA)$  . Trading in borrowed Intel shares that were sold short climbed 6.8 million shares to 18.69 million Tuesday, surpassing Nvidia's short volume of 13.01 million shares. The latest figure represented 11.1% of the total number of shares that changed hands that day. That landed Intel at the top ranking for the biggest short volume among stock

TSMC Attracts Big Put Option Trades Ahead of Earnings, Locking in Gains From 62% Rally $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$   saw millions of dollars in block trades of put options that can shield their holders against a reversal of the American depositary receipts' (ADRs) 62% rally over the past year. In the first half hour of trading Wednesday, four block trades were posted involving put options that give their holder the right to sell a combined 1.57 million ADRs of the Taiwanese chipmaker at $330 each in the next 37 days. That strike price is less than $2 below the all-time high of $331.77 reached Monday. Those trades could help the buyers lock in gains or protect against volatility. The transaction

Heavy Oracle Put Buying Flags Downside Risk Amid Software Selloff, Lawsuit Risk On Wednesday, U.S. software stocks broadly weakened, with $Oracle(ORCL)$   shares falling more than 5% intraday. Beyond news that the company has been sued by a creditor, an unusual options trade suggests institutional investors are proactively pricing in downside risk for Oracle over the coming weeks. Heavy Put Buying Signals Institutional Short-Term Bearish Positioning Options data show significant activity in ORCL's February 13, 2026 $160 put, where nearly 10,000 contracts traded in a single session while open interest previously stood at only single digits. The volume-to-open-interest ratio (V/OI) exceeded 100, strongly indi

Meta's Stock Slump Boosts Demand for Put Options for Mag 7's Worst Performer $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$   saw increasing demand for put options that can shield investors against a continued share slump for the worst performing Magnificent Seven stock over the past three months.  Shares fell 1.7% Tuesday after Bloomberg reported that the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp was in talks with $EssilorLuxottica(ESLOY)$   for the potential doubling of production capacity for AI-powered Ray Ban smart glasses by the end of the year.  "Meta potentially doubling Ray Ban availability, anticipating demand for AI wearables, could be too optimis

Google Breaks $4 Trillion as Options Signal a Near-Term Pullback After Alphabet's market capitalization surpassed $4 trillion and the stock reached a record high, the options market delivered a clear message: short-term capital is no longer chasing upside and is instead positioning for a potential pullback. Shortly after the breakout, a near-term, at-the-money put was opened with a notional value of approximately $6.11 million, expiring in mid-February. The trade's volume was roughly 64 times open interest (V/OI ≈ 64), underscoring that this was not routine liquidity but an active new position. Given its structure, the trade is highly sensitive to near-term price movements, suggesting investors are proactively pricing downside or volatility risk over the coming weeks rather than passively

Gold and Silver Hit Fresh Record Highs Amid Inflation and Fed-Independence Worries Gold and silver prices edged up to new record highs Tuesday as a U.S. consumer prices rose in December, while geopolitical tensions continue to run hot amid concerns the Trump Administration is threatening the independence of the Federal Reserve. $Gold - main 2402(GCmain)$   rose as much as 0.6% to a record $4,644.00 per ounce during the session, while $Silver - main 2603(SImain)$   added as much as 4.8% to a $89.215-an-ounce all-time intraday high. The metals rose after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the Consumer Price I

U.S.-Listed China Stocks Rally: Kingsoft Cloud +22%, Alibaba +10.3%, GDS +9.7% U.S.-listed Chinese stocks rallied in early trading, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index rising as much as 3%. Gains were broad-based across internet, cloud and EV names, reflecting a pickup in risk appetite. Among the top performers, $Kingsoft Cloud Holdings Ltd(KC)$   surged more than 22%, while $Alibaba(BABA)$   rose 10.3% and $GDS Holdings Ltd(GDS)$   gained 9.7%. $XPeng Inc.(XPEV)$ 

AI Compute Demand Expectations Lift NBIS and CoreWeave AI infrastructure stocks moved sharply higher on Monday, with $NEBIUS(NBIS)$   surging more than 10% and $CoreWeave, Inc.(CRWV)$   rising nearly 13%, as investor appetite for third-party GPU cloud providers rebounded. The rally was not driven by a single company-specific catalyst, but rather by a renewed repricing of sustained AI compute demand. As large language models iterate rapidly, hyperscalers are seeing growing needs for both training and inference capacity, prompting greater reliance on external GPU cloud platforms to boost flexibility and reduce infrastructure concentration risk. Nebius and CoreWeave are among the most dir

TSMC Q4 Preview: The AI Gatekeeper Takes Center Stage $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$  , the world's leading semiconductor foundry, will release its Q4 earnings report on January 15. The market is closely watching what kind of profit results this company, widely regarded as the ultimate "pick-and-shovel" play in the AI boom, will deliver. Option Market Signals Ahead of TSMC's highly anticipated earnings release on January 15, the options market is flashing cautionary signals as the put/call ratio has surged to an elevated 1.64 on total open interest of 1.76 million contracts, reflecting heightened demand for downside protection into the report. Implied volatility stands at 43.33%, commanding a substanti

Tesla Quick Take: 2026 Could See Unsupervised Robotaxi and FSD Launch Robotaxi and FSD largely support $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$  's current high valuation. Here's an update on Tesla's latest operational status. Robotaxi Current Operations: 1. Tesla Robotaxi has a pricing advantage over Waymo: Tesla Robotaxi initially charged a fixed fare of $4.20 per trip, later adjusted to $6.90 for an expanded service area. The latest pricing model has gradually shifted to dynamic pricing, about $1.5 per mile. In comparison, Waymo's pricing in San Francisco and Phoenix is about $2.5 per mile, reaching over $3 per mile during peak hours. 2. Tesla Robotaxi operations are currently limited to Austin, Texas, and the San Francisco Bay

Bank Stocks Start 2026 Strong Why bank stocks have been leading again Banks are basically a "macro bundle" in one ticker: growth, rates, credit, and market activity. What has gone right recently is the combo platter: Rates stayed high enough for long enough to keep net interest income resilient, even as investors began to price in eventual cuts. That "not too hot, not too cold" rate path matters more to banks than the absolute level. Credit has not cracked in a way that forces a big spike in provisions, so earnings have looked "boringly dependable," which the market tends to reward when the tape gets crowded in more fragile narratives. Capital markets woke up: underwriting calendars and deal chatter have improved, and early 2026 issuance activity has been busy, which tends to flow through

Oklo Short Sellers Retreat, Ondas Short Volume Doubles, APLD's Rises $Oklo Inc.(OKLO)$   short sellers retreated a day before the stock climbed more than 10%, buoyed by news that $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$   agreed to prepay for power and provide funding for the nuclear technology company's power project.  The nuclear technology company saw those trading activities decline for a third straight session Thursday, as the stock climbed 56% just in the first six sessions of 2026. Shorting the stock has been a challenging trade after the shares surged 344%.  The stock opened 17% higher Friday after Wall Street cheered the a

Options Market Statistics: Nvidia Leads on Alpamayo AI Debut; Intel Speculation Surges on 18A Success $NVIDIA(NVDA)$   maintains its position at the top of the daily active options list with a bullish put/call ratio of 0.61 and a low IV rank of 10.61%. Volume reached 2.27 million contracts against 18.10 million in open interest, reflecting stable market expectations despite high activity. At CES 2026, NVIDIA recently unveiled Alpamayo, a breakthrough reasoning-based AI platform for autonomous driving. This open-source ecosystem positions NVIDIA as a foundational infrastructure provider for the next generation of Level 4 autonomous vehicles. $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$ </

Defense Sector Brief Review: Aircraft Engines and Avionics Systems Lead the Charge The 50% single-year increase in U.S. military spending recently claimed by U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to face significant resistance, since exceeding the defense budget cap requires 60 Senate votes, but Republicans hold only 53 seats. The budget reconciliation process only needs 51 votes but still faces fiscal gap issues. Without appropriate budget sources or balanced spending, it may not meet budget reconciliation criteria. Still, objective factors support potential growth in military industries. Delays in the U.S. sixth-generation fighter project, aging naval vessels and aircraft carriers, and stagnant tonnage growth all point to a genuine need for military industrial upgrades. Key Sectors to Wa

Apple's Options Volume Rise as iPhone Maker Trails Mag 7 Peers $Apple(AAPL)$  's options volume rose as investors sought protection against volatility that has hit this year's worst performing Magnificent Seven stock. Shares of the iPhone maker has tumbled about 5% since the start of the year, outpacing the 1.5% decline for  $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$, 1.3% for $Meta Platforms (META.US)$, 0.8% for $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ and $Tesla (TSLA.US)$. By contrast, $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ jumped 6.4%, while $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ advanced 4.9%.  Apple shares have fallen amid concerns over rising memory chip prices as surging demand from artificial intelligence drive shortages. Worries over rising production cost for iPhones