Morning Market Notes 07-17-26

Market Calendar

$SPX & $QQQ

Tech is getting smoked again premarket. QQQ down 1.86% and already trading under the 700 Put Wall, SPY off 0.91%, VIX bid up 11% into the mid 18s. Yesterday's chip complex de-risking turned into a full washout overnight as the street keeps asking if the AI capex math actually works, and a revenue whiff from one of the big streamers gave the tape another excuse to sell.

It's July OPEX too, so the monthly gamma rolls off today and the pin gets weaker as the session wears on. Futures are pointing at an open below the Put Wall. Under the wall the hedging flow sells with the tape, reclaim it and the gap above at 7504 becomes the magnet. Macro day is busy: import prices, housing starts, and building permits at 8:30, industrial production at 9:15, then consumer sentiment and home builder confidence at 10.

Let's have a sesh.

This old Soldier is at $82K and counting

You read the morning analysis. Blu reads the same notes, then he watches the real-time flow confirm the setups and stacks payouts toward a $100K month. That's the difference between reading about the move and being in it.