Friday’s Vital Data: Apple Inc (AAPL), United States Steel Corporation (X) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)

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U.S. stock futures had a flat open for Wall Street this morning, as the major market indices hover just shy of record highs. Even better-than-expected earnings from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) have had trouble convincing bulls to push higher in premarket trading. Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) and Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) will follow JPMorgan later this morning.

Friday’s Vital Data: Apple Inc (AAPL), United States Steel Corporation (X) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)Heading into the open, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were last seen off 0.02%, S&P 500 futures had slipped 0.04% and Nasdaq-100 futures had no gain.

On the options front, volume was anemic once again on Thursday, as only about 13.8 million calls and 12.1 million puts changed hands. On the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio edged higher to 0.62, while the 10-day moving average held at 0.64.

Drilling down on Thursday’s options activity, calls remained popular on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) despite Barclays calling the iPhone 8 “overhyped.” Meanwhile, Wall Street still isn’t ready to let Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) run as bearish jitters resurface. Finally, United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) surged on reports of President Donald Trump’s support for steel quotas and tariffs.

Friday’s Vital Options Data: Apple Inc (AAPL), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) and United States Steel Corporation (X)

Apple Inc (AAPL)

Barclays isn’t buying into the brokerage community’s “supercycle” hype for Apple and the coming iPhone 8. In fact, the ratings firm believes the iPhone 8 is being overhyped, as reports surface that many of the key features consumers were looking — including wireless charging, enhanced 3D and Touch ID — may not be on the new smartphone. That leaves only the high-definition OLED display, and that won’t be enough to convince customers to upgrade, says Barclays.

Options traders don’t appear to be heeding any of these warnings, however. Volume on AAPL rose to nearly 1.4 million contracts on Thursday, with calls snapping up an above average 63% of the day’s take. Furthermore, the August put/call open interest ratio has pulled back from its recent highs above 0.90 to rest at 0.81 today, as calls are added at a faster rate than puts in this soon-to-be front-month series.

As for AAPL options traders’ near-term targets, peak August call OI rests at the overhead $150 strike, totaling more than 42,000 contracts, with another 41,000 contracts at the $160 strike.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)

Bullish AMD investors are skittish. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does create quite a bit of volatility. Yesterday, AMD dropped roughly 5.3% following reports that short interest remains high on the stock, despite dropping 7% in the most recent reporting period, and news that Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) would join the data center processing race against AMD and Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) — though any new products on that front would be months down the road.

While nothing said yesterday was major news, it was still enough to spook gun-shy AMD investors … even in the options pits. Volume topped 633,000 contracts on Thursday, with calls only managing to eke out 58% of the day’s take. It marked a stark reversal of recent trends that had calls accounting for upwards of 63% to 64% of daily options activity.

That said, as I’ve noted before, most of the recent call volume has been directed at profit taking, as the July put/call OI ratio has risen lately to 0.62. Sentiment shifts as we head into August, however, with the back-month put/call OI ratio dipping to very bullish 0.44. If AMD can establish a solid foothold above $14, much of this short-term volatility could dissipate.

United States Steel Corporation (X)

At a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, President Trump called out China for dumping steel in the U.S. market. “They’re dumping steel and destroying our steel industry, they’ve been doing it for decades, and I’m stopping it. It’ll stop,” he told reporters. “There are two ways: quotas and tariffs. Maybe I’ll do both.”

The remarks were more than enough to spark a considerable rally in the steel industry, and United States Steel stock jumped nearly 4% following the comments. X options traders also jumped on Trump’s comments, sending almost 270,000 contracts across the tape, with calls making up 66% of the activity.

X stock has seen little in the way of bullish activity lately, and the shares are down more than 42% since February. Options traders, however, are raging bulls right now. Specifically, the August put/call open interest ratio rests at 0.33, with calls tripling puts among back-month options. The biggest bullish target is the out-of-the-money Aug $25 call strike, where more than 34,000 contracts currently rest.

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/2017/07/friday-vital-data-apple-inc-aapl-advanced-micro-devices-inc-amd-united-states-steel-corporation-x/.

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