Your intraday options trading update.
High Options Volume by Strike
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY) has two of three top spots with the SPY May11 130 Put trading 110,469 contracts, last sale 1.87, and the SPY Apr11 133 Put trading 57,355 contracts, last sale 1.11. The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) digs up 101,496 contracts in the SLV Jul11 25 Put, its last was .14. A newbie to the list is the Oil Service HOLDRs ETF (NYSE: OIH) trading 57,282 contracts, last sale 2.31. The OIH includes Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI), and Halliburton (NYSE: HAL)
Major Stock Trading Volume Movers
Mucho takeover news impacting this section. American Medical Systems (NASDAQ: AMMD) rises 7.14 to 29.47 and stock volume hits nearly 42 million. Endo Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: ENDO) and AMMD announced this morning that ENDO would buy the firm for about $2.9 billion in cash. Global Crossing (NASDAQ: GLBC) will be bought by Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT) for $1.9 billion. GLBC is up 8.47 to 23.27. Community Health (NYSE: CYH) is down 13.49 to 26.81 as Tenet fights its hostile takeover. Tenet files lawsuit claiming CYH doesn’t deserve them. See filing below.
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Stocks/Underlying – Big Daily Change in Option Volume
Jack in the Box ( NASDAQ: JACK) earns option volume of 2,504 contracts, a rise of more than 1,800% as the stock drops 1.09 to 21.08 on 480,825 shares. The battle to purchase Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) has hit the options market. Forbes reports this morning that Tenet is fighting its proposed $3.3 billion takeover by Community Health (NYSE: CYH). Tenet charges in a court filing that CYH’s intake numbers are artificially high. Tenet records options volume of 48,874 as stock drops 1.18 to 6.37; meanwhile Community Health sees options volume rise huge (for it) to 9,773 contracts as stock plummets 13.83 to 26.47. Nurse!
Stocks – High Put/Call Ratio
Indicator of bearish mood finds a JPMorgan Alerian MLP Index (NYSE: AMJ) master limited partnership that owns and operates oil and gas pipelines. The AMJ sees its put/call ratio hit 224.00 as it drops .16. Healthcare firm Applera Celera Genomics (NASDAQ: CRA) has a put call ratio of 134 as option traders load up on puts, according to reports. And Interactive Brokers Group (NASDAQ: IBKR) sees its put/call ratio move to 94.86. Barron’s said that Sandler O’Neill analysts increased its EPS projections for IBKR to 2011 to $1, a rise of 10 cents.
Stocks/Underlying – High Option Volume
The SPDR S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) tops 1 million options contracts as it drops to 132.60. The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) has options volume of 458,345 as the etf drops .15 to 39.71, and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) joins the top 10 here with options volume of 168,261 with the stock dropping 3.38 to 331.68.
The CBOE Volatility Index (CBOE: VIX) is active with the index down 1.22 to 16.65. Options on VIX trade 126,020 contracts.
