Campbell Soup Chunky Options Trades

by OptionsZone Experts | May 24, 2011 1:55 pm

Your intraday options trading[1] update.

The market appears to have already entered the dog days of summer with the Dow down less than 15 and the S&P 500 Index at 1315.55, down 1.82. The US Commerce Dept. reported a 7.3% rise in new home sales in April while the FDIC says there are now 888 problem banks in the country, up slightly from a previous quarter. And oil was up and trading at about $99.50 per barrel this morning after Goldman Sachs gave it a bullish review.

And speaking of barrels …

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (NASDAQ: CBRL[2]) is down nearly 10% to 48.05 on fiscal third quarter report that income came in at $15.2 million, or 64 cents a share, below consensus view of 66 cents. CBRL has traded about 2100 options, seven times the average daily volume, What’s Trading reports.

Rising commodity prices have hurt some restaurant and food firms in the quarter but Cracker Barrel reports it lowered general and administrative expenses so impact was minimal. Revenues came in at $582.5 million, up a meager 1% from the same period a year ago. Analysts expected north of $594 million.

Interesting trades today in Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB[3]) after it reported yesterday quarterly profits of 57 cents per share, five cents better than Street estimates. Stock is down 1.5% to 44.94 but option volume is eight times the average daily, according to Trade Alert. An investor sells 10,000 Jun 35 Puts at 35 cents per contract.

Intriguing in CPB is the strikes with the largest open interest are about 18-months out, the CPB Jan 2013 35 Calls with 6700 contracts and CPB Jan 2013 Jan 30 Calls with a little more than 6500. The CPB Jan 2012 40 Calls report an open interest of 5664 contracts.

High Options Volume by Strike

Citigroup (NYSE: C[4]) fallen below 40 to 39.87 after ballyhooed 10-for-1 reverse split sent it to 45 near the start of the month. Most active options is the C Jan 12 4 Puts trading more than 58,000 contracts. The 4s are part of the old Citi options, listed as C1.

The S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY[5]) sees 43,479 contracts trade in the SPY Jun 132 Call. It was down .12 to 2.02.

The iShares Russell 2000 Index (NYSE: IWM[6]) Jun 75 Puts and Jun 90 Puts each trade more than 40,000 contracts.

Major Stock Trading Volume Movers

TravelCenters of America (AMEX:TA[7]) trades nearly 7 million shares, down .18 to 5.51. TA operates fuel stops along U.S. highways.

Fpic Insurance Group (NASDAQ: FPIC[8]) is up 9.3% to 41.35 as The Doctors Co. announces buyout for $362 million in cash.

Find more option analysis and trading ideas at Options Trading Strategies[9].

Stocks/Underlying – Big Daily Change in Option Volume

The iShares Russell 1000 Index (NYSE: IWB[10]) — read that carefully — gets a moment in the spotlight, trading 1332 options, a rise of about 4700%.

Movie company Dreamworks Animation (NASDAQ: DWA[11]) trades more than 7,000 options as stock drops .22 to 24.54, and the stock hits a 52-week low.

Stocks/Underlying – High Option Volume

Top equity is Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO[12]) as it trades 77,076 options. CSCO is down .06 to 16.29. The CSCO Jan 2012 16 Put trades 21,488 contracts.

The SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY[5]) has option volume of about 660,000 contracts as SPY trades flat. The Standard & Poor’s Index Options (CBOE: SPX[13]) is virtually flat and trades 219,000 options.

The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV[14]) trades more than 197,000 options as it rises to 35.22.

The CBOE Volatility Index (CBOE: VIX[15]) is down .39 to 17.88 and trades more than 125,000 contracts.

The iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (NYSE: IWM[6]) trades 262,146 options.

Burney Simpson is the managing editor of InvestorPlace options pages.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2011/05/campbell-soup-chunky-options-trades-cpb-cbrl-spy-spx-vix-c/

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