Your intraday options trading update.

The market is generally quiet with major indicators up somewhat. Traders watching the price of crude which has been little changed from yesterday’s sell off around $98. Retail sales data from the Commerce Department this morning showed a modest .5% increase, smallest since last July.

“That suggests that commodity inflation, including the rise in gas prices, has impacted the buying habits of U.S. consumers,” said Joseph Cusick, SVP and options analyst with OptionsXpress in Chicago.

However lackluster the rise, it still went up and that indicates the economy is improving, says Cusick. His sense is oil will continue in the $90 to $100 range.

In options markets Cusick is watching intriguing activity in several stocks that have been subject to takeover and/or merger rumors.

OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX), a long-time takeover rumor stock, is seeing large purchases of Aug 10 and 12 Calls, along with Jun 10 Calls. OMX is at 9.52 putting these nearly at or out of the money. Total option volume is about 11,000 calls versus 1400 puts, says Cusick, so market in OMX has a bullish cast today.

Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) is rising as it has been taking business from the struggling Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) plus there are rumors swirling of possible deal or merger or something between JNPR and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), says Cusick. Take any rumor with a grain of salt but the options trading this morning shows 39,000 calls versus 4500 puts, typically a bullish sign. The JNPR May 40 Calls, which expire next week, see volume of 10,465 contracts.

High Options Volume by Strike

The SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) dominates busy strikes with its SPY MayWk2 135 call trading up .12 to .45 on volume of 67,000 options. The Wk2 May 134 Puts trade about same number, down .21 to .24.

Cisco continues to get option interest with the CSCO May11 17 Call trading down .82 to 23 on 66,244 contracts. A CSCO Jan12 20 Call trades about 40,000 contracts. CSCO is at 17.04.

The CBOE Volatility Index (CBOE: VIX) sees traders exchange 38,322 contracts on the VIX Jul11 27.5 Call strike. The strike is last at 1.30, down .05.

Major Stock Trading Volume Movers

Wilshire Bancorp. (NASDAQ: WIBC) trades 15 million shares but is unch at 3.06. Wilshire announced it would sell 36.4 million shatters at 2.75 each with hopes of garnering $100 million for capital needs.

Northstar Realty (NYSE: NRF) trades almost 14 million shares, and is down .21 to 4.49. It announced plans for a public offering of 15 million shares at 4.25.

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

Stocks/Underlying – Big Daily Change in Option Volume

RR Donnelley and Sons (NYSE: RRD) trades more than 32,000 option contracts, a rise of more than 7,000%. Cusick notes that much of this is a trader creating a Sept 20 Put position with sales at $1.15. RRD is trading near 52-week high and recently announced plans for a $1 billion share buyback. Including the gathered premium, the trader would pay $18.85 for the shares if the options are put to him.

Huntsman Corp. (NYSE: HUN) trades more than 37,000 options as stock drops .88 to 19.31. The chemical firm recently reported 1Q revenues rose 28% with earnings at 47 cents per share, well over analyst estimates.

Stocks/Underlying – High Option Volume

The SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) has option volume of nearly 1 million contracts with the index rising .61 to 135.05. The Standard & Poor’s Index Options (CBOE: SPX) is up 6.03 to 1348.11 on nearly about 250,000 options.

The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) is down .25 to 34.14 on 601,000 option contracts.

Cisco is down .79 to 16.99 and trades 260,000 options this morning.

The VIX trades about 200,000 contracts and is down .70 to 16.25.

New Citigroup (NYSE: C) trades 139,000 options as underlying moves down .72 to 42.20.

Burney Simpson is the managing editor of InvestorPlace options pages.