Your intraday options trading update.
High Options Volume by Strike
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY) is dominating options trading, holding the top 5 slots – all puts by the way — and 7 of the top 10. Anyway the most active strike is the SPY Apr11 130 Put with last of .49 trading 208,858 contracts, followed by the SPY Apr 11 132 Put with 93,981 contracts, with last of 1.24. Equity of consequence is Citigroup (NYSE: C) with the C Apr 11 4.5 Call trading last at .06 with 75,365 contracts. An ETF with some volume is the iShares MSCI Emerging Index (NYSE: EEM) with 69,715 contracts traded on the EEM May11 51 Call.
Major Stock Volume Movers
Tech firm Identive Group (NASDAQ: INVE) is up 1.91 to 4.57 on volume of 11.5 million shares, an 1800% rise. Google plans to use INVE near field communications stickers for a marketing campaign. Safe Bulkers (NYSE: SB) down a little on 12 million shares, a 760% increase. Marine transporter reports that its public offering of 5 million shares was priced at $8.40 per share, according to Reuters. WMS Industries (NYSE: WMS), maker of slot machines, drop 6.93 to 29.99 on 6.4 millions shares as it reports demand for its devices has dropped.
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Stocks/Underlying – Big Daily Change in Option Volume
Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) sees options volume rise about 2500% to 4300 contracts as stock drops .75 to 14.01. A blog reports California DA is investigating allegations of consumer fraud. Slot machine maker WMS makes our list again due to drop in demand. WMS options volume rises to 2.378. ITT Corp. (NYSE: ITT) sees volume rise to 29,882 contracts as stock drops .36 to 58.74. Company agreed to pay $100 million to settle a long running case involving the sale of its classified night-vision technology. Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) today has option volume of 82,416 contracts, a rise of more than 400%.
Stocks – High Put/Call Ratio
Biopharama firm Talecris Biotherapeutics (TLCR) has high stock trading volume of 1.2 million shares and Put/Call ratio rises to 142.31. TLCR is down .21 to 27.19. A Spanish firm called Grifols has bid $4 billion for the company and FTC is said to be reviewing deal, reports local daily NewsObserver. The FTC turned down a Talecris takeover by an Australian company due to antitrust concerns. Reports are Grifols must pay TLCR $375 million if the deal falls through.
China Medical Tech (CMED) today has a Put/Call ratio of 88.94 as stock drops to 12.29. Investors Business Daily says CMED had an operating margin of 57.9% in last quarter.
Stocks/Underlying – High Option Volume
Dominated again by Spys and Spooks. The SPDR S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) sees volume of 1.2 million option contracts as it drops 1.07 to 131.39. The S&P 500 Index Options (CBOE: SPX) has volume of 286,162 contracts as SPX drops 11.45 to 1313.01. The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) has options volume of 206,005 as it drops .03 to 39.18. EEM active with nearly 122,000 contracts.
Top equity is Delta (NYSE: DAL) with 82,416 contracts as stock rises .44 to 9.87. Mixed analyst reports along with stat Delta has lowest short interest in airline industry.
The CBOE Volatility Index (CBOE: VIX) is active with the index up .99 to 17.58 on 131,175 contracts.
Burney Simpson is the managing editor of InvestorPlace options pages.
