U.S. stock futures are trading mixed heading into the open this morning, as the start of earnings season later this week has raised some caution in the wake of Friday’s solid U.S. jobs report. Meanwhile, tech remains a bright spot in the early going, extending Friday’s late-week rebound. What’s more, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) will be in focus this morning after the first Model 3 rolled off the assembly line this weekend.

Heading into the open, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average have dropped 0.04%, S&P 500 futures have gained 0.05% and Nasdaq-100 futures have gained 0.27%.

On the options front, volume was pretty average on Friday, with about 14.6 million calls and 13.9 million puts changing hands. On the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio rose to 0.66 while the 10-day moving average ticked higher to 0.63.

Diving into Friday’s options activity, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) drew mixed activity in the options pits after Qualcomm, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) filed suit claiming Apple infringed on six patents. Elsewhere, Tesla is bouncing back amid the tech rebound, driven by the first Model 3 to roll off assembly lines. Finally, Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) saw increased call activity after announcing an AI partnership with Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU).

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Apple once again found itself in a legal patent battle on Friday. Qualcomm filed suit in California federal court claiming chips in Apple’s iPhones and iPads violate six of its patents, including those that make batteries last longer. Qualcomm is seeking monetary damages for the infringement as well as a ban on iPhone and iPad imports.

AAPL options traders were shifting back toward calls before the lawsuit was filed. Friday’s activity, however, shows that enthusiasm was completely hamstrung. Volume came in at a healthy 919,000 contracts, but the put/call split was 50/50 on the day, as AAPL put traders gained momentum. However, there was enough call enthusiasm prior to the lawsuit to drive the July put/call open interest ratio down a notch to 0.66 from last Monday’s reading of 0.67.

Tesla Inc (TSLA)

TSLA stock took quite a beating last week, shedding more than 15% in the wake of weaker-than-expected second-quarter deliveries. However, sentiment is beginning to shift back toward the bulls, as the much-anticipated Model 3 began to roll off the production line this weekend. The car will sell for about $35,000 and roughly 400,000 people have already put down a deposit for a Model 3, making increased production crucial to Tesla’s success.

With TSLA stock trading in oversold territory, options traders remained reserved about the stock’s ability to bounce back quickly. Friday’s volume came in at about 733,000 contracts, but calls only made up 55% of the day’s take. However, TSLA’s July put/call OI ratio dropped sharply to 0.88 this morning, down from Thursday’s perch at 0.97. With the shares plunging 15% last week, profit taking by the bears is the likely culprit behind the falling put open interest for TSLA.

Nvidia Corporation (NVDA)

AI remains a very hot topic in the tech sector, and Nvidia just signed a blockbuster collaboration deal with Chinese search engine Baidu to improve upon and explore AI technology. The scope of the partnership is quite broad, including collaborations on cloud computing, self-driving vehicles, consumer devices, PaddlePaddle — Baidu’s open-source AI project. What’s more, Baidu said that Nvidia’s Drive PX 2 AI computer will serve as the foundation for its self-driving vehicle platform.

Options traders appeared reluctant to dive into call positions following the news, however. Total volume came in at a healthy 328,000 contracts, but calls only managed to grab 57% of the day’s take.

Still, there has been enough call activity to push NVDA’s July put/call OI ratio down from its July 28 reading of 0.93 to its current perch at 0.87, proving that NVDA bulls are creeping back into the options pits at a more cautious, and arguable more healthy, pace.

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