Thursday’s Vital Data: Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), General Motors Company (GM) and Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (ADR) (PBR)

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U.S. stock futures are bouncing around breakeven this morning, as Wall Street weighs Hurricane Irma as it barrels toward Florida. Dubbed the worst storm ever seen in the Atlantic, Irma ripping its way through the Caribbean and is expected to hit Miami and the Florida Keys on Sunday.

Thursday’s Vital Data: Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), General Motors Company (GM) and Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (ADR) (PBR)

Hurricane Irma arrives on the heels of Hurricane Harvey, which caused billions in damages and put a strain on the insurance sector. Traders on Wall Street are currently in a holding pattern ahead of the storm’s landfall.

In fact, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average have barely budged this morning, up 0.06%. Meanwhile, S&P 500 futures are up 0.09% while Nasdaq-100 futures have added 0.15%.

Even options traders are cautious ahead of Irma’s landfall in the States. On Wednesday, volume came in below average, with about 13.4 million calls and 11.9 million puts changing hands. On the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio rose to 0.57, driving the 10-day moving average off multimonth lows to 0.61.

Taking a closer look at Wednesday’s options activity, Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) was in focus among call traders after T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS) added free Netflix to certain mobile plans. Elsewhere, General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) continued to ride higher on last week’s update on U.S. auto sales. Finally, Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) saw volume soar more than sixfold after the company hiked gasoline and diesel prices following Hurricane Harvey’s disruption of U.S. oil infrastructure in Houston.

Thursday’s Vital Options Data: Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), General Motors Company (GM) and Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (ADR) (PBR)

Netflix, Inc. (NFLX)

If you have a T-Mobile unlimited plan, you may be getting free Netflix next week. The company dubbed the new promotion “Netflix on Us,” and is providing free Netflix service to subscribers with unlimited T-Mobile One plans with at least two lines of service. T-Mobile hopes to lure customers away from competitors, while Netflix will be more than happy to have the new subscribers and revenue.

NFLX options traders also saw this as a boon for the shares. Netflix rose nearly 3% on the news, and options traders chased the rally. Volume rose to 132,000 contracts, roughly 1.6 times NFLX’s daily average. Furthermore, this activity appeared to be largely bullish, with calls snapping up 64% of the day’s take.

However, most of this call activity is taking place at back-month strikes. Specifically, the September put/call open interest ratio has barely budged during the past several weeks, and currently rests at a bearish reading of 0.95. Clearly, speculators aren’t expecting NFLX to do much heading into next week’s expiration, as both peak call and put OI rest at the near-the-money $180 strike.

General Motors Company (GM)

Since last week’s report on strong August U.S. auto sales, GM shares have rallied more than 6%. The stock has even taken out former resistance in the $36.50 region, which had capped GM stock back in mid-July. GM now appears to be consolidating those gains north of $37, with traders nervous about the impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma on auto sales for the current quarter.

GM options activity has shown a fair amount of optimism of late, with call activity rising in the wake of last week’s U.S. auto sales figures. Yesterday’s call blitz, however, was most likely tied to GM trading ex-dividend today. Volume surged to 171,000 contracts, or 6.5 times the stock’s daily average. Furthermore, calls made up 94% of all Wednesday’s activity, with traders piling in to dividend capture strategies ahead of the ex-div date.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (ADR) (PBR)

Petrobras, as it is more commonly known, has historically received a lot of flack for not responding fast enough to global shifts in oil and gasoline supplies. This time around, however, the company has hiked gasoline and diesel prices twice to match global price spikes in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

Petrobras hiked gasoline prices by 4.2% and 2.7% on Thursday and Friday last week, while boosting diesel by 0.8% and 4.4% in the same announcements. Despite the hikes, analysts say Petrobras is still behind in pricing with the global market.

Given Petrobras’ previous slow response rate, PBR investors are just happy to see some progress, however. The stock jumped nearly 5% yesterday, and PBR options traders chased the rally higher. Volume rose to 128,000 contracts, nearly 6.5 times the stock’s daily average, while calls made up 79% of the day’s take.

Short-term optimism is quite high among PBR options traders, as the September put/call OI ratio currently rests at 0.55, with calls nearly doubling puts among front-month options. That said, peak call OI currently totals over 43,000 contracts at the in-the-money $9 strike, so look for PBR options traders to do a little profit taking soon.

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/2017/09/thursday-vital-data-netflix-inc-nflx-general-motors-company-gm-petroleo-brasileiro-sa-petrobras-adr-pbr/.

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