Friday’s Vital Data: Apple Inc. (AAPL), AT&T Inc. (T) and Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA)

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U.S. stock futures are trading broadly lower this morning, as traders take profits off the table heading into the weekend, with the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy and the looming Brexit vote on the U.K. potentially leaving the European Union weighing heavily.

Friday’s Vital Data: Apple Inc. (AAPL), AT&T Inc. (T) and Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA)A reversal in crude prices was also partly to blame, with oil falling 1.4% to $49.84 per barrel. On the economic front, the June consumer sentiment reading will arrive later this morning.

At last check, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were off 0.52%, S&P 500 futures have shed 0.63% and Nasdaq-100 futures have fallen 0.71%.

Option volume remained firm on Thursday, but puts gained favor, especially among ETFs. In fact, ETF option volume dominated yesterday’s activity, with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) attracting 4.6 million contracts (2.8 million puts) and the iShares Russell 2000 Index (ETF) (NYSEARCA:IWM) pulling in 2.1 million contracts (1.7 million puts).

Overall, 12.8 million calls and 12.3 million puts changed hands. The situation was slightly more positive on the CBOE. with the single-session equity put/call volume ratio jumping to 0.72 yesterday, while the 10-day moving average edged higher to 0.60.

In equity option news, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) options activity was unusually quiet heading into Monday’s World Wide Developers’ Conference (WWDC). Elsewhere, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) appears to have outbid Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) in round two of the bidding war for Yahoo! Inc.’s (NASDAQ:YHOO) internet business. Finally, Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) saw put volume pile up as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigates suspension issues on the Model S.

Friday’s Vital Options Data: Apple Inc. (AAPL), AT&T Inc. (T) and Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA)

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

It wasn’t long ago that practically every Apple event was a borderline national holiday. Investors waited on pins and needles for the latest Apple updates, innovations and Steve Jobs’ iconic “One more thing..”

I’m reminded of this because WWDC is on Monday, and the mainstream financial news is nearly silent on the topic. If you’re looking for what to expect, you can find a good Apple WWDC rundown here, but the highlights include a significant Siri update and revisions to watchOS and tvOS.

For speculative options traders, Apple events were just shy of Christmas, with high volatility, rising option premiums and plenty of surprises on which to speculate. However, Thursday’s volume was far from spectacular, with only about 810,000 contracts changing hands. What’s more, AAPL options traders also appear rather indecisive about the stock’s short-term direction, with calls only eking out 53% of Thursday’s take.

Looking at AAPL June 17 open interest configurations, we find that call traders are still holding some hopes for the stock. Peak call OI for the series totals 79,700 contracts at the $115 strike, while another 55,000 call contracts are open at the $110 strike. Peak put OI, meanwhile, totals 43,800 contracts at the currently in-the-money $100 strike — an unusual, and bearish, development for AAPL.

AT&T Inc. (T)

The battle for Yahoo! continues this week, as the former internet giant weighs a second round of bids for its online businesses. Verizon briefly had the upper hand, with a reported bid of $3.5 billion, but people familiar with the matter said that bid was dwarfed by several bids at $5 billion or more. What’s more, AT&T was one of those higher bids, with Verizon now near the bottom of the list.

AT&T needs Yahoo!’s online services to catch up with Verizon, which has already assimilated AOL’s online business.

Options traders are quite bullish on T’s prospects, with calls making up a sizeable 89% of yesterday’s total volume of about 418,800 contracts. In fact, data from Trade-Alert shows that yet another trader (or the same trader doubling down) entered into a June 2017 $45/$50 bull call spread. This time 75,000 $45 strike call contracts were bought and 75,000 $50 strike call contracts were sold for a total ask of 30 cents, or $30 per pair of contracts — three cents less than Wednesday’s activity. The total outlay was $2.25 million.

Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA)

TSLA stock’s rally skidded to a halt on Thursday, as the shares retreated sharply on news that the NHTSA was investigating the Model S’s suspension for safety issues. Last night, Tesla denied the safety issues, calling the NHTSA’s claims “preposterous.”

In a blog post the company said, “First, there is no safety defect with the suspensions in either the Model S or Model X … Since we own all of our service centers, we are aware of every incident that happens with our customer cars and we are aware of every part that gets replaced.”

The damage has already been done on the sentiment front, however, as options traders loaded up on TSLA puts on Thursday. Total volume reached 216,000 contracts, with puts snapping up 53% of the day’s take. In fact, TSLA’s June put/call open interest ratio rose yesterday to a reading of 0.90, as calls and puts are now nearly in parity among options set to expire within the next month.

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/2016/06/fridays-vital-data-apple-inc-aapl-att-inc-t-tesla-motors-inc-tsla/.

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