Wednesday’s Vital Data: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Facebook Inc (FB) and Ford Motor Company (F)

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U.S. stock futures are mixed this morning after Wall Street digests a strong rally driven by better-than-expected economic data on Tuesday. This morning, investors are keeping an eye on Fed speeches, as well as Brexit, with the U.K. invoking Article 50 and officially starting the country’s withdrawal from the EU.

Heading into the open, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are down 0.10%, while S&P 500 futures dipped 0.05% and Nasdaq-100 futures have risen 0.02%.

On the options front, volume normalized a bit on Tuesday, with roughly 14.3 million calls and 12.1 million puts changing hands. On the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio rose to 0.60 and the 10-day moving average ticked lower once again to 0.65.

Driving Tuesday’s options volume, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) saw additional call option volume following a JPMorgan price-target hike. Elsewhere, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) also drew higher call volume after announcing new features to compete with Snap Inc (NASDAQ:SNAP) and Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) announced it was building a new $200 million new advanced data center.

Wednesday’s Vital Options Data: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Facebook Inc (FB) and Ford Motor Company (F)

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

The much anticipated 10th anniversary edition of Apple’s iPhone is slated for release this fall, and analysts at JPMorgan believe the device has plenty of pent up demand waiting in the wings. In a note to clients yesterday, JPMorgan reiterated its “overweight” rating and lifted its price target from $142 to $165. The brokerage firm also lifted its earnings projections to $11.74 per share for 2018 and its unit forecast from 245 million to 260 million units for the same period.

While bullish activity was dampened by the recent market correction, AAPL options traders piled into calls yesterday. Total volume rose to nearly 1.5 million contracts, with calls accounting for 60% of the day’s take. However, recent call activity appears to be more of the short-term profit-taking variety, as the April put/call open interest ratio has risen from Monday’s perch at 0.90 to today’s reading of 0.95, as puts are added at a faster rate than calls.

This shift in sentiment isn’t much to worry about right now, with AAPL holding firmly above $140, but a breach of support here could create cause for concern and prompt a spike in AAPL put options.

Facebook Inc (FB)

Facebook rolled out more features in its quest to remain competitive with social media upstart Snap yesterday. The company announced what it called “More ways to to share with the Facebook camera,” including filters, a “Stories” feature that had already rolled out on Instagram, and direct photo sharing — all popular features currently on SnapChat.

Options traders appeared to back the new features, with calls accounting for 65% of the more than 383,000 contracts traded on FB stock yesterday. What’s more, the April put/call open interest ratio continued its recent decline, arriving at 0.44 this morning. In other words, FB options traders continue to add calls at a faster rate than puts on the stock, as expectations for a continued uptrend remain strong. Currently, peak April OI lies at the in-the-money $140 strike, but the overhead $145 and $150 are quickly gaining in popularity.

Ford Motor Company (F)

After revealing weak first-quarter estimates on Monday, Ford threw investors a bone yesterday by announcing $1.2 billion in investments at three of its Michigan plants. However, most of that $1.2 billion was previously announced, including $850 million for an assembly line for the new Ford Bronco and Ranger. New to the program was $200 million for a new advanced data center and $150 million for expansion of an engine plant — adding to $700 million in previously announced investment.

According to Ford, the  plant investments are “consistent with what we agreed to and talked about with the UAW in 2015 negotiations.”

Options traders remained broadly positive about the growth, however, sending 204,000 contracts across the tape, with calls snapping up a hefty 77% of the day’s take. The renewed attention to calls could mark the start of a reversal in sentiment for F stock, as the shares’ April put/call open interest ratio has ticked lower from 1.02 on Friday to 1.00 as of this morning. After falling more than 9% since March 17, F stock could use a bit of optimism.

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/2017/03/wednesdays-vital-data-apple-inc-aapl-facebook-inc-fb-ford-motor-company-f/.

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