Monday’s Vital Data: Facebook Inc (FB), Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) and Apple Inc. (AAPL)

U.S. stock futures are trending broadly higher this morning, after Congress finally decided to fund the government, but only through September. Wall Street’s attention will now turn once again to a flood of corporate earnings reports and this week’s key economic data.

Monday’s Vital Data: Facebook Inc (FB), Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) and Apple Inc. (AAPL)Speaking of which, several reports are due ahead of the open this morning, including March personal income, consumer spending and core inflation figures, the March Markit manufacturing report and the March ISM construction spending report.

Heading into the open, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are up 0.16%, S&P 500 futures have added 0.23% and Nasdaq-100 futures have gained 0.38%.

On the options front, traders appeared nervous heading into the weekend, as puts accounted for the bulk of Friday’s activity — possibly hedging against a possible U.S. government shutdown. Overall, about 15.3 million calls and 16.4 million puts changed hands on Friday. On the CBOE, however, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio slipped to 0.68 and the 10-day moving average fell to a one-week low of 0.66.

Despite political concerns, corporate earnings drove most of the volume for Friday’s most actively options. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which reports after the close tomorrow, and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), which will release its quarterly report on Wednesday, both topped Friday’s action as traders positioned ahead of the events. Finally Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) rounded out the top three most active options in the wake of the company’s Thursday’s afternoon report.

Monday’s Vital Options Data: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Facebook Inc (FB) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)

Facebook Inc (FB)

Social media giant Facebook is entering the earnings confessional this week. Wall Street currently has its sights set on a profit of $1.12 per share and revenue of $7.85 billion.

The whisper number rests at $1.21 per share per EarningsWhispers.com. In addition to the top- and bottom-line figures, analysts will be scrutinizing user growth and, more importantly, ad revenue growth, which has hit some bumps in the road this year. FB stock rallied roughly 4.6% last week, putting the shares north of former resistance at $150.

Options traders don’t appear too concerned about Wednesday’s report, as calls continue to dominate in the options pits. On Friday, FB saw 1.13 million contracts change hands, with calls making up 65% of the day’s take. As for 5 May options, the put/call OI ratio comes in at an optimistic reading of 0.63, indicating an above-average number of calls focused on Facebook’s quarterly report. Currently, 5 May implieds are pricing in a 4.26% move for FB stock following Wednesday’s quarterly report.

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

Amazon.com attracted mixed options activity following Thursday’s after-hours quarterly report. Amazon blew past Wall Street’s expectations, earning $1.48 per share on revenue of $35.7 billion, versus the consensus estimate for $1.12 per share and $35.3 billion in revenue. However, revenue at Amazon Web Services continued to slow, rising only 43% year-over-year to $3.7 billion, down from a 64% surge in the year-ago period.

As a result, AMZN pulled back sharply from its intraday highs near $950 to settle just shy of $925 on Friday. This sharp intraday reversal gave options traders pause, leading puts to make up roughly 48% of the more than 667,000 contracts that traded on AMZN on Friday. If you got into the AMZN May $920/$950 bull call spread I suggested on Thursday, hopefully you go out early at the top on Friday morning. Otherwise, it may be a long slog back to $950 in the coming weeks.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Finally, Apple will step onto the earnings stage after the close tomorrow afternoon, with analysts expecting the iPhone maker to post a profit of $2.01 per share on revenue of $52.61 billion. While iPhone unit sales for the current quarter will be scrutinized, any details or guidance for the iPhone 8 could steal the show. Furthermore, Wall Street is expecting Apple’s cash reserves to top $250 billion this quarter, roughly 90% of which is held overseas.

Calls remain the center of attention for Apple options traders, as these typically bullish bets accounted for 65% of the more than 713,000 contracts traded on Friday. However, there is still lingering trepidation among short-term traders, as the 5 May put/call open interest ratio currently rests at 0.83, with calls and puts just shy of parity.

Additionally, AAPL options appear relatively inexpensive at the moment, with 5 May implieds only pricing in a move of about 3.45% for the shares following tomorrow’s report.

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/2017/05/monday-vital-data-apple-inc-aapl-facebook-inc-fb-amazon-com-inc-amzn/.

©2024 InvestorPlace Media, LLC