Oracle Options Show Unusual Bullish Skew Into Thursday Earnings — SkimNews
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- Oracle shares have fallen 17% year-to-date and shed more than half their value from 52-week highs, yet options imply an 11% swing on Thursday's report versus a 9.5% average move over the prior three quarters.
- Oracle call open interest clusters are notably heavier than put clusters, with equidistant calls trading at richer premiums — the 180-strike calls ($18.28 from the stock) in the September 11 weekly traded at $3.90 versus $2.34 for the 144-strike puts ($17.71 from the stock) as of September 9 close.
- The September 2025 earnings blowout — when Oracle surged 35% — is anchoring trader psychology, and the stock has already rallied 15% in the week heading into the print.
- This upside-skew pattern in Oracle options has persisted for the last year but has grown sharply more pronounced within the past week, and Thursday's report is followed Friday morning by the CPI release.
- Amazon and Microsoft both surged roughly 15% after their recent earnings validated AI capex, framing the bar for Oracle's massive AI infrastructure buildout.
- The unresolved question for Oracle is whether it can keep funding that AI buildout without further financial strain.
Why it matters: Traders are paying a premium for Oracle upside that they refuse to pay for downside — a reversal of normal equity market hedging behavior — reflecting genuine optimism that Oracle's AI infrastructure bet will mirror Amazon's and Microsoft's 15%+ post-earnings pops rather than the stock's 17% YTD slide.
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