Thursday’s Vital Data: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA), Oracle Corporation (ORCL) and Twitter Inc (TWTR)

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U.S. stock futures are trading lower this morning, marking the third down morning in a row. Oil remains the narrative for selling pressure on Wall Street, with some analysts calling for crude to hit $30 per barrel before the bear market in black gold ends. Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims and May leading indicators are due out later this morning, while Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell is expected to testify before the Senate Banking Committee.

Thursday’s Vital Data: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA), Oracle Corporation (ORCL) and Twitter Inc (TWTR)Heading into the open, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are down 0.04%, S&P 500 futures have slipped 0.04% and Nasdaq-100 futures have gained 0.02%.

On the options front, volume was about average on Tuesday, with about 15.5 million calls and 13.4 million puts crossing the tape. On the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio continued to see whipsaw activity, diving to 0.59 from yesterday’s perch at 0.72. The 10-day moving average, which aims to smooth out these gyrations, held at a two-month high of 0.66.

Turning to Wednesday’s options activity, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) just completed its two-day entrepreneur conference in Detroit, and Baird issued a positive follow-up for the company. Elsewhere, Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) saw heavy call activity ahead of last night’s strong quarterly earnings report. Finally, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) drew quite a bullish following after a report surfaced saying the company’s improved video ad strategy is starting to pay off.

Thursday’s Vital Options Data: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA), Oracle Corporation (ORCL) and Twitter Inc. (TWTR)

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA)

Alibaba just spent two days in Detroit telling American entrepreneurs how they can sell their goods to Chinese consumers. The conference was apparently well received, as many were intrigued by access to the Chinese retail market, and the chance to diversify away from Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Analysts at Baird, who also attended the conference, held a “generally bullish outlook” on Alibaba’s export marketplace, noting that “presenters suggested that Alibaba is nearing an inflection point in selling imports from North America.”

BABA stock rose more than 3.6% following Baird’s report, with the shares finally putting some distance between themselves and round-number support/resistance at $140. BABA options traders noted the breakout, and sent more than 521,000 contracts across the tape — 72% of those call options.

The short-term bull case for BABA has not gone unnoticed either, as the July put/call open interest ratio has fallen to 0.57, with calls nearly doubling puts among options set to expire next month. What’s more, BABA is already trading north of peak July call OI of roughly 40,000 contracts at the $140 strike, meaning there should be little in the way of options-related resistance until the shares look to test $145.

Oracle Corporation (ORCL)

I hope you were following Laura Hoy’s pre-earnings look at Oracle, because she nailed it: “Owning Oracle stock for the long-term is a good move because the firm is undervalued…” ORCL stock was certainly undervalued, and the shares are up more than 10% pre-market after the company posted blowout quarterly earnings, beating both bottom and top line expectations. If pre-market gains hold, ORCL stock will open at a fresh 52-week high north of $50.

Oracle options traders knew something was up heading into the report. Volume on ORCL rose to a near-term high of 424,000 contracts, with calls snapping up 64% of the day’s take. That said, it seems even bullish ORCL options traders were caught off guard, as the shares are set to open north of all major call OI in the both the June and July series of options. Peak July OI, for instance, numbers 32,000 contracts at the $48 strike, with another 17,000 at the $50 strike.

Look for ORCL to see a flurry of call activity heading into next week as traders rush to catch up.

Twitter Inc (TWTR)

Twitter has become quite a tenacious stock. Once thought dead and gone, the company has come roaring back with a plan to restructure itself as an online TV streaming specialist. And those plans appear to be paying off. According to Cleveland Research, Twitter is getting “constructive feedback” from advertisers on its streaming strategy and its execution of live content. Additionally, Twitter announced yesterday a new way for people to earn money by live streaming on its Periscope service.

TWTR stock jumped more than 5% on the report, and Twitter options traders appeared to chase the rally. Volume on the stock rose to nearly 261,000 contracts, with calls gobbling up 82% of the day’s take.

That said, yesterday’s activity marked an extension of a growing and rather bullish contingent of TWTR traders, with the July put/call OI ratio arriving at 0.36 — in other words, calls now nearly triple puts among options set to expire next month.

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/2017/06/thursday-vital-data-alibaba-group-holding-ltd-baba-oracle-corporation-orcl-twitter-inc-twtr/.

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