Your daily option trading wrap up.

Market Sentiment

Stocks are broadly higher late-Thursday. Economic data was in focus early after the Labor Department reported that filings for jobless benefits fell by 20,000 to 368,000 in the week ended February 26. Economists were looking for an increase of 12,000 and the better-than-expected numbers held more significance than usual because it comes ahead of key jobs data tomorrow. Meanwhile, a separate report showed productivity in the fourth quarter up at an annual rate of 2.6%, compared to expectations of 2.3%. The ISM Services Index released later increased to 59.7 in February, which was up from 59.4 and ahead of expectations of 59. The earnings news remains light and much attention remains on the oil market, where crude is down 41 cents to $101.82, but well off session lows near $100 per barrel. Still, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 208 points and the tech-heavy NASDAQ has added 53. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) sank 2.35 points to 18.35. Trading in the options market is running about the typical levels, with 7.7 million calls and 5.9 million puts traded so far.

Bullish Flow

Citigroup (NYSE: C) Jan $5 call is today’s most active options contract. Shares have added a nickel to $4.65 and 92,000 contracts traded. The top trade is 22,271 C Jan 5 Calls at 43 cents when the market was BID 42 /ASK 43 cents. A separate block of 34,412 C Jan13 7.5 Calls traded at 24 cents when the market was BID 22 /ASK 24 cents. Total of 71,920 contracts traded in the series. Overall flow looks to reflect increasing bullish sentiment and implied volatility (IV) is steady around 29.5 (compared to a 52-week range of about 71 and 26).

Chiquita Brands (NYSE: CQB) slips and falls after reporting a quarterly loss of 43 cents per share. The stock is down 40 cents to $15.14. The top options trade of the day is a 1000 contract block of CQB May 15 Calls at $1.70 on International Securities Exchange. It’s an opening buyer, according to ISEE data. 3,280 traded vs.352 in open interest, as some investors seem to view today’s weakness as an opportunity to buy in-the-money calls on CQB.

Bearish Flow

YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ: YRCW) adds a nickel to $2.27 and 50,000 call options traded on the trucking company today. One player drove most of the action. They bought 21,005 YRCW April 3.5 Calls at 11 cents and sold 20,000 YRCW July 2.5 Calls at 34 cents. Looks like a roll and closing out a position in YRCW April 3.5 Calls opened at 45 and 43 cents on Jan 13 and 14 when shares were trading about 53% above current levels. Shares took a 21% hit Monday after YRCW announced restructuring plans. The strategist is now banking the profit and rolling down to the YRCW Jul 2.5 Calls. The same investor also bought 859 YRCW Apr 3 Calls and 5984 YRCW April 4 Calls.

Implied Volatility Mover

Dollar Thrifty (NYSE: DTG) notches a new 52-week high and is up $1.02 to $54.18. Shares are now up 3.1% since earnings were reported on Feb. 24. Options are busy for a second day. Players were apparently buying to open new positions in DTG April 60 Calls. Today, the DTG April 55 Calls are the most actives. 5,845 traded (88% on the Ask). Mar 55, Jul 60 and Oct 60 calls are busy as well. 15,000 calls and only 43 puts traded on the auto rental company. Implied volatility is up 9% to 36.

Option Flow

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Frederic Ruffy is the Senior Options Strategist at Whatstrading.com, a site dedicated to helping traders make sense of the complex and fragmented nature of listed options trading.