Monday’s Vital Data: Micron Technology, Inc. (MU), Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

Advertisement

U.S. stock futures are down sharply across the board this morning. The Nasdaq Composite is leading the decline, driven by heavy losses in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). Facebook stock itself is down nearly 4% premarket due to its poor management of third-party access to user information.

stock market todayHeading into the open, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures have dropped 0.57%, S&P 500 futures are fallen 0.62% and Nasdaq-100 futures have plunged a whopping 2.54%.

Turning to the options pits, volume was slightly above average heading into the weekend. About 18.6 million calls and 16.9 million puts changed hands on Friday. The CBOE single-session equity put/call volume ratio held at 0.63. The 10-day moving average slipped to 0.60, its lowest reading since February 5.

Taking a closer look at Friday’s options activity, Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) saw a rush of call activity after a trio of analysts issued bullish notes on the stock. Elsewhere, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) should see options volume pick up today after news broke the company is making its own screens. Finally, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) saw increased activity after it hired ex-FDA chief health informatics officer to help with it’s health care project.

Monday’s Vital Options Data: Micron Technology, Inc. (MU), Apple Inc (AAPL) and Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

Micron Technology, Inc. (MU)

Bullish sentiment is shifting into high gear this week for Micron Technology. No less than three analysts issued bullish notes on MU stock ahead of this Thursday’s quarterly earnings report.

J.P. Morgan analysts recommended buying calls ahead of the event. Baird Equity Research lifted its price target of $100 from $60. Finally, KeyBanc Capital Markets said that Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.’s (OTC:SSNLF) increased DRAM production wouldn’t hurt Micron.

Micron stock options traders were all too happy to oblige J.P. Morgan after the bullish influx. Volume surged on MU to 463,000 contracts, more than 1.45 times the stock’s daily average. Calls claimed 72% of the day’s take. In fact, the weekly March 23 put/call open interest ratio fell to 0.47 as a result of Friday’s activity.

Calls now double puts among options most affected by Thursday’s report. This excess of bullish optimism should be setting off warning bells among contrarian investors, especially given Micron’s current technical picture.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Options volume was pretty light on Apple this past Friday. Only about 334,000 contracts traded on the stock, coming in at about 68% of AAPL’s daily average. Calls as a percentage of daily activity was also below average, with these bullish bets only making up 60% of the day’s take.

That should change today, however. Over the weekend, Bloomberg reported that Apple has been secretly making its own screens in a manufacturing facility near its California headquarters. According to sources, Apple is specifically developing next-generation MicroLED screens to make future gadgets slimmer, brighter and less power-hungry. Success here could mean a significant negative impact for major screen manufacturers, including Samsung.

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

After week’s of silence, there is finally some news on the Amazon/healthcare front. Back in late January, Amazon announced a collaboration with J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway to bring down health care costs and improve quality for its own employees. On Friday, Amazon announced it was hiring former U.S. FDA chief health informatics officer Taha Kass-Hout to help lead the project. Taha joins  former Google X boss Babak Parviz, who is currently leading Amazon’s experimental projects team.

The news drove a spike in AMZN stock options activity, with more than 181,000 contracts changing hands on Friday. Calls claimed 54% of the day’s take, just above average for Amazon.

What’s more, the April put/call OI ratio has come down sharply for AMZN stock in the past couple of months. This ratio now rests at 0.76, down from readings just shy of 1.0 in January.

As of this writing, Joseph Hargett held no positions on the aforementioned securities.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2018/03/mondays-vital-data-micron-technology-inc-mu-apple-inc-aapl-and-amazon-com-inc-amzn/.

©2024 InvestorPlace Media, LLC