U.S. stock futures are pointing toward a reprieve this morning, as stocks look to take a breather amid their second-straight weekly sell-off. Corporate earnings have taken over the narrative on Wall Street, with lukewarm results doing little to bolster sentiment. Banking stocks, in particular, were hit hard after Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) plummeted on disappointing quarterly results.

Heading into the open this morning, however, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are up 0.19%, with S&P 500 futures gaining 0.34% and Nasdaq-100 futures rising 0.43%.

On the options front, volume returned to normal on Tuesday, with about 13.1 million calls and 12.1 million puts changing hands. Activity remained pretty tame on the CBOE as well, with the single-session equity put/call volume ratio slipping a notch to 0.62 and the 10-day moving average holding at 0.69.

Driving Tuesday’s options volume, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) introduced a new camera-based augmented-reality platform in a move to go head-to-head with a popular Snap Inc. (NASDAQ:SNAP) feature. Elsewhere, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) options traders have caught the earnings bug and are already positioning themselves ahead of the May 2 report. Finally, Goldman Sachs suffered its worst single-session selloff since its IPO following disappointing quarterly earnings results.

Facebook Inc (FB)

Taking direct aim at a popular SnapChat feature, Facebook announced the AR Studio beta on Tuesday. AR Studio will allow users to design, build and implement their own augmented-reality effects similar to those currently used on SnapChat — with one big exception: Facebook is giving away the service for free.

The new platform is clearly designed to lure users away from SNAP, which currently charges for similar AR effects.

While AR Studio could be a major play for Facebook, options traders might have bigger fish to fry with next month’s quarterly earnings report on May 3. On that front, options activity came in mixed on Tuesday. Overall volume totaled more than 381,000 contracts, with calls only snapping up 57% of the day’s take. Looking at the 5 May series, peak open interest totals more than 8,500 puts at the $140 strike, as investors appear to take a bearish pre-earnings stance on FB.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Apple is also seeing considerable pre-earnings buzz. The iPhone maker is expected to post a fiscal second-quarter profit of $2.01 per share on revenue of $52.54 billion. Naturally, however, expectations may be considerably higher, with EarningsWhispers.com reporting a whisper number of $2.07 per share for Apple. Like FB stock, AAPL shares have stagnated for the better part of the past two months, consolidating into support near $140.

Options traders, however, aren’t holding out hope for a massive post-earnings rally. While Tuesday’s volume was relatively in line with AAPL’s average — 371,000 contracts of which calls totaled 63% — the 5 May OI configuration is leaning bearish with a put/call OI ratio of 1.15. With Apple typically seeing readings well below 1.00 ahead of earnings events, it’s clear that options traders aren’t buying the hype that filled the financial media in recent weeks.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)

GS stock plunged nearly 5% on Tuesday, as the shares suffered their biggest one-day loss since the company went public more than 18 years ago. By the numbers, Goldman Sachs earned $5.15 per share, missing expectations for $5.31 per share, while revenue came in at $8.03 billion, also short of analysts’ target for $8.45 billion. Most disturbing, however, was the 6% decline in trading revenue, which stood in stark contrast to gains across the board for many of Goldman’s peers.

Options traders appeared to be less harsh on GS stock than the rest of Wall Street. Total volume arrived at a near-term high of 262,000 contracts, with calls accounting for 53% of the day’s take.

However, with the April/May put/call OI ratio rising from Monday’s perch near 0.78 to nearly 0.90 yesterday, many of these calls may have been closeouts of losing positions to limit losses.

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