U.S. stock futures are headed higher this morning, as tensions continued to ease on the Korean peninsula. According to North Korean state media, Kim Jong Un has backed off his threat to attack Guam but warned he could change his mind if the U.S. persisted in reckless actions.

Outside the Korean conflict, Wall Street will be flooded with economic data today as reports on July retail sales, import export prices for last month, the August Empire State manufacturing survey, August homebuilders sentiment from the National Association of Home Builders and figures on June business inventories are all on tap.

Heading into this data rich session, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures have added 0.25%, Nasdaq-100 futures have risen 0.21% and S&P 500 futures have gained 0.23%.

On the options front, volume dropped sharply on Monday, with only about 12.7 million calls and 12.2 million puts crossing the tape, Meanwhile, with geopolitical tensions falling in the Koreas, the CBOE single-session equity put/call volume ratio plummeted to 0.54 from Friday’s multimonth high of 0.94. The 10-day moving average also eased, slipping to 0.74 after hitting its highest reading since before the November elections on Friday.

Taking a closer look at Monday’s options activity, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) saw increased options speculation following news it is in talks with Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET) to bring its smartwatch to Aetna’s 23 million members. Elsewhere, Chinese online retailer JD.Com Inc(ADR) (NYSE:JD) reported strong sales growth at the expense of rising bottom line expenses, though options traders still preferred call options on the day. Finally, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was inundated with calls ahead of today’s ex-dividend date.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

In what could be a major coup for Apple, the company is reportedly in talks with insurance company Aetna to offer its Apple Watch to Aetna’s more than 23 million subscribers for free or at discounted prices. Aetna already offers the Apple Watch to its 50,000 employees as a part of its wellness plan.

According to a CNBC report, the proposed timeline for the offering is early next year. Apple is already the leading manufacturer of health-related wearables, and getting in the door at health insurance companies could expand its market share considerably.

Options traders took note of the news, but only appeared to pay it lip service. Volume came in well below average for AAPL at just 316,000, though calls remained popular at 65% of the day’s take.

Shifting our focus to September options, we can see that iPhone 8 release speculation has shifted into high gear.

In fact, the September put/call open interest ratio has plunged to a reading of 0.40, with calls more than doubling puts among options set to expire next month. What’s more, implieds are pricing in a nearly 5% move ahead of September expiration due to anticipation of an iPhone 8 release.

JD.Com Inc(ADR) (JD)

Despite being warned about higher expenditures back in May, JD stock investors were still a little shocked when those warnings came to fruition. Chinese ecommerce giant JD.Com reported strong year-over-year sales growth for the second quarter, with revenue rising 44% from the same quarter last year. However, those gains came at a high cost, and the company reported that it lost $74.4 million in the second quarter, nearly doubling last year’s loss due to higher marketing costs.

JD stock fell more than 3.5% as a result, but JD options traders remained quite bullish in the face of the selloff. In fact, volume jumped to nearly 128,000 contracts — more than doubling JD’s daily average — with calls snapping up 82% of the day’s take.

Furthermore, when we look out to the September series, we find that the put/call OI ratio still lingers near 0.67, with calls on the verge of doubling puts among back month options. That said, this reading has rising in the past two days, indicating a modicum of profit taking. By and large, however, call adds remain on pace despite concerns of rising expenditures at JD.Com.

Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

It’s that time of year again, when companies start paying out cash dividends to shareholders. For tech giant Microsoft, yesterday was the last day to buy or gain control of MSFT stock to be eligible for its next dividend — 39 cents per share paid on Sept. 14. In Wall Street vernacular, MSFT stock trades ex-dividend today.

As a result, MSFT stock saw a rush to buy in-the-money call options as a way to gain control of the shares and capture the dividend. Volume jumped to 120,000 contracts yesterday, with calls accounting for 82% of this activity.

For sentiment purposes, this rise in call volume has very little impact, and will eventually be offset when these contracts are closed following the end of the dividend capture strategy.

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