Thursday’s Vital Data: General Electric Company (GE), Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) and Molycorp Inc (MCP)

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Wall Street finished mixed Wednesday, with the major market indices enduring choppy trading near mutliyear highs as oil prices once again reverse course. Calls continued to shrink from their recent popularity, with the CBOE put/call volume ratio of 0.58 crossing above its 10-day moving average.

Among the top 10 most active stocks in the options pits were General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), Williams Companies Inc. (NYSE:WMB) and Molycorp Inc (NYSE:MCP).

Thursday’s Vital Data: General Electric Company (GE), Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) and Molycorp Inc (MCP)

General Electric Company (GE)

Today is the ex-dividend date for GE stock, with shareholders at the close eligible for the company’s 23-cent quarterly dividend. GE stock is trading slightly lower in premarket activity, pulling back to potential technical support in the $25 region. Shares have been in rally mode throughout February, gaining nearly 6% along support at their 10- and 20-day moving averages.

With ex-dividend on the horizon, GE options traders piled into calls yesterday attempting to cash in on the company’s dividend. Of the 334,174 GE options contracts trading, 84% crossed on the call side of the tape. However, data from Analystsratings.net reveals that some 47,765 puts were bought to open on GE yesterday — a roughly 206% increase over the stock’s daily average.

With GE trading lower this morning, these puts could prove to be smart money heading into the weekend.

Williams Companies Inc. (WMB)

Williams Companies traded moderately lower on Wednesday, as traders anticipated weakness from the company’s quarterly earnings report due to plummeting crude oil prices. After the close last night, WMB posted a 30% increase in quarterly profits, as earnings came in at $944 million, or 26 cents per share. Full-year earnings soared 371% to $2.92 per share, but part of that was due to a onetime $2.5 billion non-cash pretax gain from a re-evaluation of Access Midstream assets.

On the options front, calls were extremely popular with WMB traders. Some 85% of the 141,482 contracts trading on WMB stock crossed on the call side, lending credence to the idea that some were betting on a rebound in the beaten-down shares. Late last night, WMB stock traded 0.66% higher at $49, with the shares still staring up at potential resistance in the $50 region.

Molycorp Inc (MCP)

Options activity on penny stocks is always unusual, and with former high-flying rare-earth miner Molycorp, doubly so. The stock saw 85,635 contracts trade on Wednesday, with calls gaining a slight edge by gobbling up 53% of the total volume.

The most popular strike for MCP stock is currently the Feb $1 call, where 8,295 contracts reside. Following at a distance second is the Feb $2 strike, with 3,750 contracts. Interestingly, the Feb $2 put also sports open interest of 3,750 contracts, suggesting that the open interest at both strikes is linked in a spread trade of some sort — though without additional information, this is just speculation.

MCP stock has been on a roller coaster ride the past couple of trading sessions, with the shares rising on reports of higher rare-earth prices followed by a steep selloff (possibly profit taking) on volume or more than 2.5 times the stock’s daily average. At last check, MCP stock was hovering near 88 cents per share in premarket activity.

As of this writing, Joseph Hargett did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2015/02/thursdays-vital-data-general-electric-company-ge-williams-companies-inc-wmb-molycorp-inc-mcp/.

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