Your intraday options trading update.
High Options Volume by Strike
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) top equity strike this morning with its BAC Apr11 14 Call down .02 to a last of .12 with 58,459 contracts traded. Goldman cut its 1Q earnings estimate for BAC to 25 cents from 33 cents. BAC down .09 to $13.52. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY) hold 4 of the 5 top strike positions with the SPY AprWeekly2 33 Put seeing 77,555 options traded, down .21 to a last of .10. The CBOE Volatility Index (CBOE: VIX) is active with options trading in the VIX May 11 25 Calls hitting 35,320 contracts. It’s unch at $1.05.
The other top 10 equity is Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) seeing volume in the ORCL Apr11 31 Call, up .08 to 2.75. 32,377 options traded. The stock is .37 but ORCL reported proudly yesterday it won Gartner’s highest possible rating for its sale force automation in the consumer goods industry. Whoo-Hoo! Bring it on babay.
Major Stock Trading Volume Movers
Biggest percentage gainer in stock volume taken by Elster Group (NYSE: ELT) with volume of nearly 4.3 million shares, down .18 to 15.07. A major shareholder plans to sell 16 million ELT American Depository Shares at $15 per ADS and reduce its holding in ELT. Armour Residential REIT (AMEX: ARR) is down .47 to 7.19 on nearly 13.4 million shares. Armour announced this morning it priced a previously announced public offering of 16 million shares at $7.40. Buyers also can purchase another 2.4 million.
Another big move is Puda Coal (NASDAQ: PUDA). Alfred Little reports that Puda “2009 and 2010 audited financials can no longer be relied upon” and that non-existent internal controls “allowed Chairman Zhao to first steal the company, then sell” half of it and pocket the proceeds. Puda down 2.51 to 6.59 on 16 million shares. That’s a lot of red in Chairman Zhao’s little book. Sorry.
Stocks/Underlying – Big Daily Change in Option Volume
Our friends at Puda Coal (NASDAQ: PUDA) return with option volume up about 500% to 40,344 contracts. Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) options volume hits 50,191 contracts as stock rises 11% to 24.89. Company plans to spin off its TripAdvisor subset and Jefferies says it could be worth $6 a share in value. Another seeing nice jump is Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX) with options volume at 82,909 and the stock up 1.19 to 15.88. Company announced late Thursday it expected third Q revs of $2.7 billion, and will pay a quarterly divd. of 18 cents per share.
Find more option analysis and trading ideas at Options Trading Strategies.
Stocks – High Put/Call Ratio This indicator of bearish sentiment is taking a big bite out of Brinker Intl. (NYSE: EAT), owner of Chili’s and Maggiano’s restaurant chains. It sold off yesterday after trading around its 52-week high. The Put/Call ratio stands at 147.26.
The iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond Fund (NYSE: LQD) seeks to replicate an index comprised of about 750 investment grade corporate bonds. Its put/call ratio is at 42, as the fund trades at 108.10
Stocks/Underlying – High Option Volume
The SPDR S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) records option volume of 935,372 as SPY drops a little to 133.26. The S&P 500 Index Options (CBOE: SPX) sees option volume of 292,169 as the index drops 1.52 to 1331.99.
Citigroup (NYSE: C) is unch but option volume tops 277,000. And silver is showing interest with the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) up .89 to 39.63 and options volume of 234,853. Silver futures over $40 and the SLV holds 360 million ounces, according to reports.
