U.S. stock futures are pointed lower this morning, as hawkish commentary from the Federal Reserve clashes with geopolitical concerns rising from a North Korean missile test over the weekend. A growing chorus on Wall Street remains concerns that markets have risen too far too fast, and that a correction is due, which could be kicked off by a rate hike at the coming Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

Against this backdrop, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average have dipped 0.12%, while S&P 500 futures are down 0.23% and Nasdaq-100 futures are off 0.16%.

On the options front, Friday’s session saw volume return to normal levels for the week. Roughly 15.7 million calls and 14.1 million puts changed hands. Turning to the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio arrived at 0.70, with the 10-day moving average rising to 0.63.

Turning to Friday’s volume leaders, increased expectations for a Fed rate hike bolstered call option activity for Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) on Friday, while Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) calls were in focus following the latest data on Apple Watch sales. Finally, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) saw call options volume falter alongside the shares amid a flurry of unfavorable Ryzen reviews.

Bank of America Corp. (BAC)

Higher interest rates mean higher revenue for Bank of America, and investors are expecting the Fed to hike rates once more in March. According to fed fund futures, as tracked by CME Group, the market is pricing in a 79.7% chance of a 0.75 to 1.00 point hike in the Federal Reserve’s key lending rate. Another rate hike could mean billions more in revenue for Bank of America from its investing and loan issuing units.

Following Fed Chair Yellen’s statement on Friday that a March rate hike was “likely appropriate,” options traders once again flooded BAC stock with call options. Total volume ballooned to more than 1.1 million contracts, with calls snapping up 68% of the day’s take.

What’s more, the March put/call open interest ratio has declined steadily during the past several weeks, falling to a bullish perch of 0.48 on Friday. In other words, call options now more than double put options among all contracts set to expire at the close of trading next Friday — i.e. those most affected by any potential Fed rate hike on March 15.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

AAPL call options were also quite popular on Friday. The bullish sentiment was derived from a report stating that Apple just recorded its best fourth-quarter Apple Watch sales figures ever. While independent data noted that the overall wearables market was hitting a rough patch due to lack of global expansion, Apple closed the gap considerably with wearables leader Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT).

In the options pits, AAPL saw volume rise to 839,000 contracts on Friday, with calls snapping up 63% of the day’s take. AAPL has emerged as the best-performing stock on the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2017, rallying nearly 20% since the start of the year, and options traders have set their sights on $140 by the end of next week.

Specifically, nearly 34,000 calls are currently open at the March $140 strike, compared to peak put OI of 50,000 contracts at the March $130 strike. These latter put options are likely of the “put sell” variety, designed to capture premium off technical support for rising AAPL shares.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)

The embargo period is up, and the official reviews are in on AMD’s Ryzen CPU … and the hype is all but dead. AMD soared more than 25% from January through the middle of last week on expectations that Ryzen would more than compete with everything in Intel Corporation’s (NASDAQ:INTC) lineup, but reviews last week severely undermined much of that hype. AMD has since plunged more than 19% amid a deluge of profit taking following Ryzen’s release.

Options traders appear to be holding out hope for a rebound, however. Friday’s activity revealed that calls made up 57% of the more than 724,000 contracts traded on AMD stock. However, the March put/call open interest ratio has risen sharply to its current perch at 0.80 after tagging a near-term low of 0.62 early last week.

On the call side, traders have their sights set on the March $14 strike, with OI of more than 17,000 contracts. Meanwhile put trades have zeroed in on AMD’s March $13.50 strike, where some 13,500 contracts are already trading firmly in the money.

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