Google Cloud doubled. Alphabet still had its worst day ever

Wheelhouse Weekly · November 1, 2026

The week ahead, November 2–6, built from Friday’s closing data. Clocks fell back overnight, so every time below is Toronto time (EST). English first; the full French version follows.

The week in three lines

• Alphabet had its worst day ever. Google Cloud sales doubled, yet $GOOGL fell 12.6% on Thursday, twice the move options had priced. Search missed estimates, and quarterly free cash flow was −$9.07 billion.
• Waiting changed the price, not the stock. The $AMZN $230 put from last week’s Setup #1 paid $505 before Amazon’s numbers. It pays $360 now, with the stock 3.1% lower. Setup #1 explains why.
• A busy five days. $PLTR and $AAPL on Monday, $SHOP and $AMD on Tuesday, U.S. Election Day on Tuesday, and the October jobs report on Friday at 8:30 a.m.

The scoreboard · week to Friday, October 30

Over October, the Nasdaq fell 5.3% and the S&P 500 0.9%. On Wednesday, the Fed held its key rate at 3.75%–4.00%; two of the twelve voters wanted a hike.

The lead · The clouds boomed. The stocks did not.

Last week we framed Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon as a cash test. Demand passed it easily. Google Cloud sales more than doubled, up 103% to $30.71 billion. Azure grew 48% to $33.2 billion, the first time Microsoft gave a dollar figure. Amazon Web Services grew 39.3% to $45.98 billion, its fastest pace in nearly five years.

Cash is where the grades split. Alphabet’s free cash flow was −$9.07 billion for the quarter, against about −$2.7 billion expected, and search, its biggest business, missed estimates. $GOOGL fell 12.6% on Thursday, its worst day ever. Amazon’s free cash flow over the past 12 months was −$42.4 billion, against +$14.8 billion a year earlier, and it still plans about $220 billion of capex this year. Microsoft spent $45.2 billion, finance leases included, and kept $18.63 billion of free cash flow, down 27%.

For put sellers, the lesson is in the options. Last Sunday we showed the moves they priced by Friday, October 30: ±5.3% for $MSFT, ±6.1% for $GOOGL and ±7.9% for $AMZN. Two stayed well inside: $MSFT ended the week down 0.5% and $AMZN down 3.1%. $GOOGL fell 12.6%, about twice its priced move.

A priced move is the market’s average guess, not a ceiling. That is the case for selling after the numbers rather than before: you give up the extra premium, but you know the news before you commit the cash. Setup #1 shows the trade-off on one contract.

Setup #1 · $AMZN $230 put, November 20

Study: the report is behind it, the trend is not fixed. Sell one $230 put expiring November 20, 2026. If assigned, you buy 100 shares at $230. Prices are Friday-close Cboe delayed quotes; reprice at Monday’s 9:30 a.m. open and assume no fill.

• Same contract, one week later: last Sunday this put paid $505, with Amazon’s numbers still ahead. Now it pays $360, though the stock is $7.65 lower. Implied volatility fell from 47% to 35%: the event is gone, and so is the money paid for it.
• Why own the shares: AWS grew 39.3% and operating income rose 61% to $28.1 billion. The catch is cash: −$42.4 billion of free cash flow over 12 months, with about $220 billion of capex planned for 2026.
• Trend: Friday close $240.35, below its 20-, 50- and 200-day averages ($254.39 / $254.28 / $243.40). RSI(14) 38.3: soft, not oversold. Volume 2.75× its 20-day average, after a dip to $229.36 on Friday.
• Contract: bid/ask $3.60/$3.70, a tight $0.10 spread, with 18,459 contracts open. Delta −0.28. The $360 credit is 1.6% of the cash reserved over the 18 days from Monday to expiry. Breakeven sits 5.8% below Friday’s close.

2 more setups for PRO members

• $MSFT $500 put, Nov 20: $590 on $50,000 of cash, with the breakeven 5.3% below Friday’s close. The steadiest chart of the three, with a wide $0.50 quote and a November 19 ex-dividend date to plan around.
• $GOOGL $265 put, Nov 20: $305 on $26,500, breakeven 6.4% below. After its worst day ever, RSI(14) sits at 21.4. It stays watch-only, and the post explains what would change that.

[Read all three setups in full →](https://yieldcove.com/en/tips/amzn-week-ahead-wheel-setups-november-1-2026-2026-11-01) Strike logic, risk checks and what would change each plan. Opens Sunday at 8:00 a.m.; full access with YieldCove PRO.

Last week’s setups · the check-up

All three of last week’s studies were watch-only into the reports. At Friday’s close, all three puts were worth less than their credit. The $AMZN $230 put that paid $505 was quoted near $3.65, a paper gain of about $140 per contract (28% of the credit). The $MSFT $495 put that paid $775 was near $5.05, about $270 ahead (35%). The $BE $170 put that paid $720 was near $5.08, about $213 ahead (30%), with $BE up 5.1% on the week despite an 8.6% drop on Friday. All three still have 19 days to run.

The week ahead · Toronto time (EST)

• Monday, November 2: $PLTR and $AEHR report after the close (calls 5:00 p.m.); $AAPL holds its call at 5:00 p.m.
• Tuesday, November 3: U.S. Election Day. $SHOP reports before the open (call 8:30 a.m.); job openings (JOLTS) at 10:00 a.m.; $AMD reports after the close (call 5:00 p.m.).
• Thursday, November 5: productivity and costs at 8:30 a.m.; $AKAM holds its call at 4:30 p.m.; $LITE reports after the close (call 5:00 p.m.).
• Friday, November 6: the October jobs report at 8:30 a.m.

Where only a call time is listed, the company has not said whether results come before the open or after the close. No Fed meeting this week; the next one ends December 9.

Watchlist · what changed

• $INTC: fell 28.6% on Friday to $65.76, its worst day since 1974, though third-quarter sales grew 21% to $16.5 billion. It forecast $15.0–16.0 billion for the fourth quarter, below the roughly $17.1 billion analysts expected; CNBC tied the gap to a plant shutdown in Israel and soft PC demand. The stock lost 45.3% in October.
• $META: another 4.3% lower on the week, at $614.99; it lost 15.2% in October.
• $PLTR: fell 6.3% on Friday to $184.11, ahead of its Monday report.
• $CRWV: fell 9.7% on Friday to $54.87; it lost 37.0% in October.

From Eddie’s tracker

Two covered calls closed this week, both bought back early. Eddie sold a $TSLA $435 call for $1.09 a share ($109) on Monday, October 26, and bought it back for $0.50 on Friday: $57.02 kept after fees, in 4 days. A $DRAM $63 call followed the same path: $108 up front on Wednesday, bought back for $50 on Friday, $56.46 kept in 2 days. A record of his closed trades, not a recommendation.

Free tool: before you sell a put after a report, write down the cash at stake, your breakeven and your exit line in the free wheel spreadsheet. Missed an issue? Browse the archive.

Photo: Google’s data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, at sunset, February 18, 2017. Chad Davis / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0; resized.

AI-assisted editorial: researched by Codex, edited by Claude. Educational information, not personalized investment advice. Figures exclude fees and taxes; early assignment is possible. No trades were executed for this newsletter.