Monday’s Vital Data: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), Facebook Inc (FB) and General Electric Company (GE)

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U.S. stock futures are trading lower this morning after the International Monetary Fund lowered its U.S. growth forecasts and Wall Street continued to lose faith that President Donald Trump would be able to push through his economic agenda.

Monday’s Vital Data: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), Facebook Inc (FB) and General Electric Company (GE)President Donald Trump will make a statement on health care at 3:15 p.m. after warning GOP lawmakers via tweet on Sunday that they needed to support his repeal and replace agenda. Congress’ inability to move forward on the healthcare front has called into question Trump’s ability to accomplish the rest of his plans.

Heading into the open, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average have fallen 0.29%, S&P 500 futures have dropped 0.06% and Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.01%.

On the options front, volume was brisk on Friday, as July 21 expiration attracted a wealth of activity amid the continued deluge of corporate earnings. Overall, roughly 18.1 million calls and 15.6 million puts crossed the tape. As for the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio rose to 0.56, but the 10-day moving average fell to a more than one month low of 0.60.

Taking a closer look at Friday’s options activity, corporate earnings dominated the options pits heading into the weekend, with traders focusing heavily on Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). Meanwhile, General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) drew heavy put volume after once again providing disappointing results.

Monday’s Vital Options Data: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), Facebook Inc (FB) and General Electric Company (GE)

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)

AMD’s second-quarter earnings report is on tap after the close tomorrow afternoon, and opinions are mixed on Wall Street. Analysts are expecting a loss of a penny per share, up from a loss of five cents per share in the same quarter last year. Revenue is seen rising 12.6% to $1.16 billion. AMD has a full quarter of Ryzen under its belt now, so expectations have risen in kind, with EarningsWhispers.com reporting a whisper number of a profit of a penny per share for Advanced Micro Devices.

Options traders also appear to have jumped on the bullish bandwagon. Friday’s activity saw volume jump to 418,000 contracts, with calls snapping up 74% of the day’s take. What’s more, the July 28 put/call open interest ratio rests at 0.43, as calls more than double puts among options most affected by this week’s quarterly report.

Given the rising hype surrounding AMD’s rising market share and the cryptocurrency phenomenon, expect to see call OI build heading into tomorrow afternoon’s report.

Facebook Inc (FB)

Facebook’s earnings arrive a day later this week, after the close on Wednesday, yet that hasn’t stopped speculation from ramping up ahead of the event. Volume on Friday jumped to nearly 439,000 contracts, with calls accounting for 74% of the day’s take. While not as bullish as AMD options traders, FB traders have still pushed the stock’s July 28 put/call OI ratio to a low reading of 0.53 heading into Wednesday’s report.

Given how bullish expectations are, I’m a bit surprised we haven’t see more calls traded on FB stock at this point. Currently, Wall Street is looking for a profit of $1.13 per share from Facebook, with revenue expected to rise 42.9% year-over-year to $9.2 billion. EarningsWhispers.com puts expectations at a profit of $1.22 billion, 9 cents better than the consensus.

General Electric Company (GE)

Incoming CEO John Flannery will have his hands full, that much is clear. While GE’s earnings report was actually not as bad as many had expected, guidance was abysmal, with outgoing CEO Jeff Immelt reporting that earnings for GE’s legacy business would be “lower than previously anticipated.” What’s more, Immelt said that, “Given our outlook on oil and gas, we are trending to the bottom end of the range of $1.60 to $1.70 EPS for the year.”

GE plunged nearly 3% on the day, breaching former support at $26 in the process.

Naturally, GE options traders piled into puts following the report. Volume topped 459,000 contracts, with puts accounting for 52% of the day’s take. Puts were clearly smart money ahead of the report, and if you were able to get into the July 21 $26/$26.50 bear put spread I recommended on July 19, you were able to bank a return of about 216% in only about three days.

If you opted for the Aug $26/$27 bear put spread, that too has hit its maximum profit, and should be closed out at this point.

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/monday-vital-data-advanced-micro-devices-inc-amd-facebook-inc-fb-general-electric-company-ge/.

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