Thursday’s Vital Data: Bank of America Corp (BAC), Facebook Inc (FB) and Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

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U.S. stock futures are headed higher this morning, as Wall Street looks to make up ground following back-to-back losing sessions. But employment data will be traders’ focus heading into the weekend, as ADP’s May private-sector employment report hits today as a precursor to tomorrow’s May nonfarms payroll report.

Thursday’s Vital Data: Bank of America Corp (BAC), Facebook Inc (FB) and Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)Additionally, manufacturing reports from Markit and the ISM are on tap later this morning, followed by April construction spending and May U.S. auto sales.

Against this backdrop, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average have gained 0.05%, while S&P 500 futures are up 0.12% and Nasdaq-100 futures have added 0.17%.

On the options front, volume remained scarce on Wednesday, with only about 13.9 million calls and 13.3 million puts changing hands. On the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio slipped to 0.63, while the 10-day moving average ticked higher to 0.64, tagging another one-week high.

Topping Wednesday’s options activity, Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) still drew heavy call volume despite CEO Brian Moynihan talking down second-quarter expectations. Elsewhere, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker said she believes that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) could be sitting on a $16 billion revenue opportunity gap, prompting a rush of call activity. Finally, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) briefly topped $1,000 per share for the first time yesterday, but options traders remained cautious after the milestone.

Thursday’s Vital Options Data: Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Facebook Inc (FB) and Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

Bank of America Corp (BAC)

Speaking at an industry conference yesterday, BofA CEO Brian Moynihan warned that the financial giant’s second-quarter would be hurt by falling trading revenue, lower-than-expected interest rates and the divestment of certain assets. The biggest hit was likely trading revenue, with Moynihan anticipating a year-over-year decline of 10% to 12%.

BofA’s CEO attempted to soften the blow by noting that last year’s trading revenue was an unusually high benchmark to hit and that first-half trading revenue would still be up 3% to 4% year-over-year.

BAC stock options traders didn’t seem to mind the warning, or the more than 2% decline in the shares. Volume on BofA stock topped 1.09 million contracts, with calls making up 62% of the day’s take, hinting that options traders are expecting BAC to continue higher despite the warning.

In fact, the largest BAC contract in yesterday’s Trade-Alert.com data was a block of 58,000 June $23 calls that crossed at the ask price of 18 cents, or $18 per contract. For the trader hit breakeven on this position, BAC would need to rally about 3.5%.

Facebook Inc (FB)

Highlighting a gap between time spent on mobile and mobile spending, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker said that Facebook and its social media competitors could be sitting on a $16 billion revenue opportunity. Specifically, time spent on mobile devices rose 28% in the U.S. in 2016, compared to mobile advertisers only allocating about 21% of their spending there.

FB stock’s price action was pretty ho-hum following the report, with the shares slipping 0.6% But FB options traders jumped at the news, sending 359,000 contracts across the tape, with calls snapping up an above average 68% of the day’s take. Call options haven’t been too overly popular on FB in recent weeks, as the June put/call open interest ratio currently rests at a moderate 0.72 for the shares. A continuation of Wednesday’s activity could change that, especially if FB stock can put more distance between itself and $150.

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

As if it was just testing the waters, AMZN stock breached $1,000 shortly after the open yesterday morning, and spent the rest of the day dealing with increased volatility. However, the shares are once again looking to challenge that mark this morning, rallying back some 0.3% heading into the open. Now that it has been breached once, AMZN should have an easier time of holding its ground above this psychological hurdle, potentially inviting technical buyers and sideline AMZN bears to the table.

Options activity has been heavier than usual during the past week on AMZN due to the stock’s proximity to $1,000. Last Friday saw mixed activity, and Wednesday was no different. Volume topped 230,000 contracts, with calls only eking out 54% of the day’s take.

Premiums remain quite high for AMZN stock, leading many to sell deep-out-of-the-money put strikes as a means for income, instead of paying the price to bet on a continued AMZN rally. This dynamic should shift, however, once AMZN has a firm hold on $1,000.

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


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/06/thursdays-vital-data-bank-america-corp-bac-facebook-inc-fb-amazon-com-inc-amzn/.

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