U.S. stock futures are mixed this morning, with both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures struggling to find significant positive territory, while the Nasdaq is on pace for record highs. Corporate earnings continue to be the major driver for Wall Street, through today’s release of June building permits and housing starts data should provide direction as well.

Heading into the open, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are flat, S&P 500 futures are up 0.06% and Nasdaq-100 futures have rallied 0.25%.

On the options front, volume remained below average on Tuesday, with only about 14.5 million calls and 11.9 million puts crossing the tape. Turning to the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio ticked lower to 0.62, while the 10-day moving average edged higher to 0.63.

Taking a closer look at Tuesday’s options activity, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) saw increased call activity ahead of a strong report on Chinese ecommerce sales for June. Meanwhile, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) launched an Instagram-like service for mobile app customers and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) call options remain popular ahead of tomorrow’s quarterly report.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA)

BABA stock should be in focus once again today, after China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that June ecommerce sales rose 41% year over year to $73 billion. Ecommerce sales in China were also up strong sequentially, compared to May’s 31% gain.

While NBS didn’t break down sales figures, analysts at Nomura said that “communication devices, autos and cosmetics products are the product types with accelerating year-over-year growth in June.”

With Alibaba likely a key factor in China’s strong ecommerce growth, BABA options traders have been quite bullish on the stock lately. Ahead of the report on Tuesday, BABA saw volume rise to more than 289,000 contracts, with calls snapping up 66% of the day’s take. What’s more, the August put/call open interest ratio arrives at 0.45, with calls doubling puts among near-term options.

That said, peak August call OI for BABA still lags the stock, totaling about 58,000 contracts at the in-the-money $140 strike, with another 49,000 calls open at the August $150 strike. Look for these call traders to roll higher as BABA extends its breakout above $150.

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

Amazon had a pair of stories break yesterday. First, the company is rolling out an Instagram-like service for social media in hopes that customers will buy what they see in the feed. Dubbed Spark, the service is targeted at mobile app customers, with only Prime members able to comment on shared product images.

Second, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is reportedly considering a partnership with VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) to develop software for corporate data centers. The deal could give AWS a significant advantage in the cloud data center market … one in which it has lagged behind Microsoft’s Azure, and one in which Alibaba is fast becoming a major competitor.

However, AMZN options traders appeared to largely ignore yesterday’s news. While AMZN rose nearly 1.5% on the day, call activity was barely noticeable. Overall, 272,000 contracts traded on AMZN, with calls making up only about 57% of the day’s take.

What’s more, options traders remain largely indifferent to AMZN’s prospects, with the August put/call OI ratio coming in at 0.87. While this reading is a touch lower than average for Amazon, the stock’s recent reclamation of the $1,000 level should have garnered more bullish activity.

Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

Speaking of web and cloud services, Microsoft will enter the earnings confessional tomorrow afternoon, providing investors with another update on Azure’s rapidly expanding revenue growth. Wall Street is looking for earnings of 71 cents per share on revenue of $24.19 billion, up from earnings of 69 cents per share and sales of $22.64 billion a year ago.

EarningsWhispers.com places the whisper number at 75 cents per share.

Options activity was subdued on Tuesday, but should ramp up today and tomorrow just ahead of the report. Volume came in at 271,000 contracts, while calls managed to scrape together 57% of the day’s take. Looking at this week’s earnings expectations, the Jul. 21 put/call OI ratio has risen to 0.81 ahead of the report, with options traders expressing caution with MSFT trading near multiyear highs.

July 21 implieds, meanwhile, are pricing in a potential post-earnings move of only about 3.8% for MSFT stock, placing the upper bound at $75.78 and the lower bound at $70.22.

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