U.S. stock futures are ducking lower heading into the open this morning, as Wall Street waits for directional cues in the increasingly volatile geopolitical environment. Heading up this morning’s worry list; the U.S. is taking a hard line on Syria at this week’s G-7 meeting, while North Korea says it’s ready for war if U.S. warships continue toward the Korean Peninsula.

Heading into the open, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are down 0.04%, S&P 500 futures are down 0.12% and Nasdaq-100 futures are off 0.11%.

On the options front, volume was a tad light on Monday, with only about 12.4 million calls and 10.8 million puts changing hands. On the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio dropped to 0.62, while the 10-day moving average continued to hold at 0.61.

Driving Monday’s options volume, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) call activity spiked after the company received a bizarre upgrade from Piper Jaffray. Elsewhere, Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) options activity was mixed following a bearish note from BMO Capital Markets, and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) faltered after buying VR intellectual property from Nitero for an undisclosed sum.

Tesla Inc. (TSLA)

Piper Jaffray analyst Alex Potter upgraded TSLA stock from “neutral” to “overweight” on Monday, and lifted his price target from $223 to $368. Nothing out of the ordinary, right?

But, Potter also slashed his earnings outlook for Tesla to a full-year loss of $4.83 per share from a profit of 42 cents per share and stated that clients needed to “employ a ‘creative’ valuation methodology and prepare for a bumpy ride.”

The commentary confused Wall Street’s talking heads, but traders send TSLA stock more than 3% higher and options traders piled into calls. In fact, volume surged to a near-term high of near 406,000 contracts, with calls snapping up 60% of the day’s take.

That said, much of yesterday’s call activity may have been profit taking in the wake of TSLA stock hitting a fresh all-time high. Specifically the stock’s May put/call open interest rose from below 0.80 last week to today’s perch at 0.88. In short, puts are being added at a faster rate than calls among near-term options, hinting that options traders are either betting on a reversal or taking profits from existing long-call positions.

Nvidia Corporation (NVDA)

NVDA stock saw mixed options activity on Monday after BMO Capital Markets issued a bearish note on GPU supply chain data. According to BMO, supply chain checks said that GPU shipments were down 16% between December and March, versus an average decline of 6% for the past three years. “We also believe this data suggests that weakness in Nvidia’s gaming business might show up earlier than we had anticipated,” BMO told clients.

NVDA stock fell more than 2.5% as a result, and options traders had a hard time maintaining a call bias. Total volume arrived above average at 389,000 contracts, but calls only made up 52% of the day’s take.

Meanwhile, Trade-Alert.com data reveal that two large blocks of 20,000 contracts (marked spread) traded at the bid on both the May $105 put and call. Implieds declined on the strikes following the trades. On the surface, this appears to be the closure of a May $105 straddle position following NVDA’s dip below $100 yesterday.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)

In the same report, BMO Capital noted that supply chain data was strong for CPU manufacturers, like Advanced Micro Devices, and it could have been an up day for AMD stock. However, AMD made investors nervous by purchasing wireless VR intellectual property from Nitero for an undisclosed sum. AMD said the deal would provide “broader portfolio of IP capable of enabling VR headset and solution providers with key technology required to create more immersive computing experiences,” but the undisclosed price remained a sticking point for investors.

As a result, AMD fell more than 3% on the day, but that activity was belied by heavy call activity in the options pits. Total volume came in at more than 254,000 contracts, with calls gobbling up 72% of the day’s take.

What’s more, the May put/call OI ratio ticked lower from 0.74 on Friday to 0.71 yesterday, as calls were opened at a faster rate than puts among short-term options, hinting that AMD options traders view yesterday’s dip as a buying opportunity.

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