These are the earnings reports NYSE insider Jay Woods is watching this week

Earnings are the key catalyst, with bank stocks providing early-season leadership as the SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE) rose more than 2% last week for a fifth straight gain. Defense names are in focus this week as GE, RTX and Boeing report, while ServiceNow and UnitedHealth are trading on technical levels and post-earnings reactions. Woods highlighted UnitedHealth support at $324 and $300, with upside resistance near $353.75.

Analysis

The market is increasingly trading the earnings tape as a regime filter rather than a single-stock event: when the higher-quality financials are bid after reporting, it improves the odds that investors will pay for forward guidance across cyclicals and defensives. That matters because the current leadership is narrow; if defense names deliver clean backlog conversion and stable margin commentary, it can extend the “durable cash flow” bid into adjacent industrials, avionics suppliers, and select software tied to federal budgets.

The bigger second-order setup is that defense earnings are now a proxy for procurement cadence and budget timing. Any hint that program delays, contract renegotiations, or Pentagon scrutiny are intensifying would likely hit not just primes but the entire aerospace supply chain, where suppliers have less pricing power and longer working-capital cycles. Conversely, even modest upward revisions in delivery schedules could squeeze shorts that have been positioned for margin pressure from labor and input costs.

On software, the selloff has created an asymmetric setup, but the key variable is not “beat vs miss”; it’s whether management can re-anchor growth expectations without forcing multiples lower. If guidance merely stabilizes rather than re-accelerates, the stock can still rally sharply because positioning is already damaged, but any commentary that points to elongated deal cycles or weaker seat expansion would likely keep rallies capped. In other words, the bar is now execution plus narrative repair, not just a quarterly print.

For the insurer, the technical level is only useful if it coincides with a cleaner claims/cost outlook. The market is likely underappreciating how much a small improvement in medical cost ratio expectations can matter when a stock is trading at a low-confidence discount; however, if the print lacks a credible path to margin recovery, the stock can remain trapped in a range despite headline cheapness. That makes this more of a tactical trade around levels than a durable fundamental call.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Long RTX into earnings with a 2-4 week horizon; pair against a defense supplier with weaker balance-sheet flexibility or lower backlog visibility. Risk/reward favors a modest upside surprise if guidance confirms procurement stability, with downside limited unless Pentagon commentary turns negative.
• Buy a short-dated straddle in BA ahead of the print if implied volatility is still below the stock’s realized post-earnings range. This is a clean catalyst trade because the stock’s move will likely be driven more by delivery guidance and cash conversion than by the headline EPS number.
• For NOW, consider a bearish put spread expiring 30-60 days out if the report fails to show meaningful re-acceleration. The setup favors a relief bounce, but if guidance is merely “less bad,” the multiple can stay compressed and upside likely stalls after the initial squeeze.
• For UNH, trade the range: sell out-of-the-money calls against a core long or run a call spread targeting the next technical resistance zone over the next 1-2 weeks. The stock’s main risk/reward is mean reversion, but the catalyst is only tradable if management can credibly defend cost trends.
• If defense prints cleanly, rotate from broad industrial exposure into a basket of aerospace and defense suppliers over the next month; if Pentagon commentary is adverse, fade the group quickly because the supply chain has less margin cushion than the primes.