Tuesday’s Vital Data: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Twitter Inc (TWTR) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY)

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Kicking off the trading week and much to the chagrin of autumnal volatility seekers, the market offered up more of the same old and rather quiet price action; though with a tinge of “happy days are here again” spirit.

Tuesday’s Vital Data: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Twitter Inc (TWTR) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY)For its part the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) finished up over 0.5% within a tight lateral trading range. Price action on the daily chart has continued to keep bulls and bears at arm’s length thus far during the notoriously volatile months of September and October.

Traders demonstrated a bit less constraint in the NASDAQ Composite. The tech-heavy index finished with a similar 0.69% gain, but the rally has placed the average just a hair away from fresh all-time-highs.

This morning though, the markets are showing signs of opening lower, with the S&P 500 down 0.28%, the Dow down 0.24% and the NASDAQ falling 0.13%.

Driving The Action

Behind Monday’s positive bias, investors found support from the energy complex. On the NYMEX, November crude finished up more than 2.6% while hitting a fresh one-year high of $51.35. The bid follows bullish production comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s energy minister during a meeting of major oil interests in Istanbul.

Bulls also appeared to find some solace in Sunday evening’s Presidential debate. A more unified Democratic front gained ground over an increasingly independent Trump campaign and bipartisan Republican Party following his latest verbal, in more ways than one, “disaster.”

Lastly, following Friday’s monthly jobs report and light on fresh economic data, traders may have taken a second look at the weaker-than-expected nonfarm payrolls number and opted to embrace “lower for longer” optimism by focusing on the good within the bad.

Equity Options Most Active

Equity options activity Monday took a bullish U-turn in sympathy with the broader market’s bid. On the heels of Friday’s bearish 1.18 reading, the CBOE total put/call ratio fell to 0.93 with call activity narrowly eclipsing the trading of puts.

On the options ETF leaderboard and of little surprise, the SPY saw 1.91 million options change hands. Puts outpaced calls by a margin of 1.63-to-1.0 on lighter-than-average volume of 67%.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was narrowly dethroned of its typical status as the most actively traded equity option. Volume of nearly 560,000 contracts ran at 85% of its average tally.

Call activity in Apple accounted for more than two-thirds of the Monday’s trading and sides with a technical breakout move. Shares of AAPL finished up about 1.7% to a year-to-date high following continued product safety woes surrounding competitor Samsung’s (OTCMKTS:SSNLF) Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Of the more unusual options volume in Monday’s session, pharma giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE:BMY) was atop the list after trading more than 4.5x its daily average. Net activity of 190,000 contracts showed calls favored by a margin of 1.63-to-1 over puts.

Options traders were busy hedging, replacing and wagering afresh as shares of BMY sank by more than 10% to two-year lows in reaction to disappointing clinical trial data for its lung cancer treatment. Not helping matters, rival Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) delivered two positive clinical trial results.

Most active on the session and with shares of BMY settling at $49.79, the newly anointed at-the-money Oct $50 call and put traded roughly 8,000 contracts apiece.

Barely existent open interest in the BMY calls suggests new bets by traders. At the same time, put activity with high open interest in excess of 10,000 points to a combination of closing and opening of positions in largely undecipherable trading.

Twitter

Lastly, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) ignominiously came in as Monday’s most heavily traded equity. Volume of 579,000 was twice its daily average and enough to squeak past Apple in overall options activity.

Twitter saw a continued buyers’ strike of sorts after Bloomberg reported potential bidders were more interested in walking away than in negotiating a buyout for the social media outfit.

Shares of TWTR tumbled an additional 11.5% on top of last Thursday’s initial, “no interest” 20% plunge provided by tech reporter Recode.

Turning to the options on Twitter, calls trumped put activity by a margin of 1.5-to-1.

The January $25 call with open interest of nearly 39,000 was the most active contract on TWTR stock. However, with volume of just 11,000 and existing coverage of more than 3.5x, clarity over who’s buying — and who’s not — also remains a mystery.

As of this publishing, investment accounts under Christopher Tyler’s management do not maintain positions in any of the securities or their derivatives mentioned. The information offered is based upon Christopher Tyler’s observations and strictly intended for educational purposes only; the use of which is the responsibility of the individual. For additional market insights and related musings, follow Chris on Twitter @Options_CAT.

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The information offered is based upon Christopher Tyler’s observations and strictly intended for educational purposes only; the use of which is the responsibility of the individual. For additional market insights and related musings, follow Chris on Twitter @Options_CAT and StockTwits.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2016/10/tuesdays-vital-data-apple-aapl-twitter-twtr-and-bristol-myers-squibb-bmy/.

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