Monday’s Vital Data: Facebook Inc (FB), Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) and AT&T Inc. (T)

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U.S. stock futures are mixed this morning, as Wall Street dithers ahead of a pair of Federal Reserve speeches. Livening up an otherwise uneventful day economically, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren will speak at 9 a.m. Eastern in Hartford, Conn., followed by Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart at 12:40 p.m. Eastern.

Monday’s Vital Data: Facebook Inc (FB), Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) and AT&T Inc. (T)It will be a week for speeches, apparently, as Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen will speak at a town-hall meeting in Washington on Thursday, and President-elect Donald Trump will hold his first news conference since July is this Wednesday.

Against this backdrop, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are off 0.11% and S&P 500 futures have slipped 0.07%, while Nasdaq-100 futures have edged 0.07% higher.

On the options front, volume remained well above average on Friday with about 16.3 million calls and 14.2 million puts changing hands on Friday. Over on the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio ticked lower to 0.68, while the 10-day moving average finally moved lower off a four-session stint at a one-month high to arrive at 0.66.

Turning to Friday’s volume leaders, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) saw a spike in call option activity despite the stock’s 50-day and 200-day moving averages completing a bearish technical “death cross.” Elsewhere, RBC Capital weighted in bullishly on Nvidia Corporation’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) partnership with Audi to deliver a self-driving car by 2020, and AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) was smacked lower by a reminder that President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t like the Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) merger deal.

Monday’s Vital Options Data: Facebook Inc (FB), Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) and AT&T Inc. (T)

Facebook Inc (FB)

FB stock saw its 50-day and 200-day moving averages complete a “death cross” on Friday, a technical formation that is often the harbinger of a bear market for afflicted stocks. The cross arrives after FB has shed more than 6.7% in the past two months, with Facebook plagued by ad reporting issues that could undermine the company’s bottom line. While some technical analysts believe such a cross is more indicative of prior woes, FB stock traders should keep a close eye on the shares and any breaches of key support levels — such as the $115 area for Facebook stock.

Options traders didn’t seem too concerned with this technical development on Friday, however. Total volume for FB stock hit 903,000 contracts, with calls snapping up 67% of the day’s take — well above Facebook’s daily average call activity in the 64%-65% range.

In fact, looking at the week ahead, the Jan. 13 put/call open interest ratio has fallen to a near-term low of 0.65, with calls on the verge of doubling puts for the series. In other words, options traders don’t appear too concerns with technical harbingers, and are looking for FB stock to continue to rebound in kind.

Nvidia Corporation (NVDA)

Red-hot NVDA stock has seen some turbulence since peaking near $120 late last month. But the shares received a bit of a sentiment boost during last week’s CES keynote address when NVDA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announced a partnership with German carmaker Audi to produce autonomous driving cars by 2020. RBC Capital weighed in on the news, reiterating its “outperform” rating and speaking favorably on Nvidia’s prospects in 2017.

Short-term NVDA stock options traders remain wary of the shares, however, given the recent profit-taking purge that saw the shares shed more than 15.5% from their recent peak. Volume on Friday came in at 251,000 contracts, with calls only accounting for 53% of the day’s take. In fact, with a total January put/call OI ratio of 1.39, NVDA options traders have taken a decidedly protectionist stance on the shares, with attitudes poised to shift heavily bearish on a breach of support at $100.

AT&T Inc. (T)

AT&T stock traders may be jumping the gun on the Time Warner merger deal — at least according to recent comments from President-elect Donald Trump. Trump’s election win prompted many investors to bet big on the T/TWX merger, discounting Trump’s previous distaste of the deal as election-speak. That changed on Friday, when Trump reiterated his dislike of the deal.

T stock fell roughly 2% on Friday following those comments, and options traders rushed to fill put orders on the day. Total volume came in at 259,000 contracts, with puts snapping up 62% of the day’s take.

Looking out to February, the most popular strike is the $43 call, with more than 25,000 contracts, though both the $40 and $37 strike puts sport OI in excess of 11,000 contracts each.

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/2017/01/mondays-vital-data-facebook-inc-fb-nvidia-corporation-nvda-and-att-inc-t/.

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