U.S. stock futures are trading broadly lower this morning, as Wall Street frets over potential delays to the passage of the Republican tax plan, which includes much anticipated corporate tax cuts. Meanwhile, earnings season rolls on with reports from Macy’s Inc. (NYSE:M) and Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) on tap today.

Heading into the open, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures have lost 0.32%, S&P 500 futures are down 0.42% and Nasdaq-100 futures have shed 0.65%.

On the options front, volume has leveled off this week to hover just above October’s daily average. On Wednesday, about 16.4 million calls and 13.7 million puts changed hands. On the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio rose to 0.68, and the 10-day moving average held at a one-month low of 0.63.

As for Wednesday’s options activity, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) attracted considerable volume after the Department of Justice demanded considerable asset sales before approving the Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) merger. Meanwhile, Macy’s drew mixed options activity ahead of this morning’s quarterly earnings report, while BP Plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP) options traders rushed to snap up the company’s quarterly dividend payout.

AT&T Inc (T)

In a move that shocked many on Wall Street, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said it would not approve the AT&T/Time Warner merger unless considerable assets were sold … namely, the combined company would have to sell either Turner Broadcasting or its DirecTV satellite TV.

Speculation quickly emerged that Turner property CNN was being targeted by President Donald Trump’s DOJ, given Trump’s growing feud with the news agency. However, White House spokesperson Raj Shah said, “The president did not speak with the attorney general about this matter.”

AT&T has said that it has no intention of selling CNN or letting go of DirecTV and is reportedly planning a legal battle on the issue.

T options traders began planning for the worst, however. Volume topped 276,000 contracts on T stock, with puts snapping up 54% of the day’s take. November open interest has taken a decidedly bearish turn for T, with the put/call OI ratio rising to 1.06 as puts are added at a faster rate than calls. This negativity appears to be born from dashed hopes that the T/TWX merger would be finalized before the end of the year.

Currently, peak put OI for November totals nearly 107,000 contracts at the deep in the money $37 strike. Another 38,500 are open at the Nov $33 put, as traders are starting to realize that T stock is in considerable trouble going forward.

Macy’s Inc (M)

M stock options traders were uneasy heading into this morning’s quarterly earnings report. Volume came in well above average at 224,000 contracts, with calls only eking out 56% of the day’s take. What’s more, the weekly Nov 11 put/call OI ratio heading into Macy’s report rose to a reading of 1.11, as puts were added at a faster rate than calls despite yesterday’s added call volume.

Immediately following Macy’s report, the stock is trying to pick a direction, bouncing between a loss of 2% and a gain of about 1.5%. For the quarter, Macy’s said it earned 23 cents per share on revenue of $5.28 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of 19 cents per share on $5.3 billion in sales. Additionally, Macy’s backed its full year guidance, and said it still sees full-year same-store sales down 2.2% to 3.3%.

BP Plc (BP)

BP options volume rocketed to 374,000 contracts on Wednesday, coming in at more than 27-times the stock’s daily average volume. Calls gobbled up 99% of the day’s take. A closer look at BP options activity reveals that most of these calls were in-the-money purchases, which likely coincided with the purchase of BP stock as a means of capturing dividends.

Naturally, BP stock trades ex-dividend today. In other words, yesterday was the last day buy BP stock if you were looking to collect the company’s 60-cent-per-share payout on Dec. 21.

Options traders employ a number of strategies to capture dividend payouts, while simultaneously divesting themselves of the actual underlying shares. For more on dividend capture strategies, check out this article.

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