$BMT$INTC The market’s mainstream reaction is: with Microsoft and Amazon earnings coming up, alongside ServiceNow and Intel, investors are generally focused on whether AI capex can continue. Intel is seen as a “dead weight” on the fringes of the AI narrative, so sentiment ahead of earnings is cautious, if not outright bearish. But I think this very one-sided neglect gives $INTC’s earnings event contrarian trading potential. The logic: First, although Intel’s recent implied options volatility has risen, the put/call ratio is elevated, suggesting downside has already been heavily priced in. Any better-than-expected cost-cutting or foundry-order news could easily trigger short covering. Second, historically, Intel has beaten expectations in several quarters when the market had “given up” on it—including Q4 2023 and Q1 2024, when the stock surged sharply in a single day after earnings because expectations had been set so low. Third, the current AI trade is crowded into mega-cap giants like Microsoft. If earnings season brings a “sell the news” rotation, capital could instead flow into laggards with low expectations and high potential upside, and Intel is a prime candidate. As for BTC, it’s currently at $80,516, down just 0.26% over 24 hours, so risk appetite hasn’t collapsed. That also supports the view that this is a rotation, not a flight to safety. What do you think? Feel free to share a different opinion in the comments.