U.S. stock futures are trending higher this morning, pointing toward a positive open. For Wall Street, it’s another day, another tweet from President Donald Trump. Yesterday’s nosedive was driven by threats of a missile strike in Syria. Today, we are seeing a relief rally after another Trump tweet indicated that such a strike may not be imminent.

That said, gains are being limited by comments out of China. This morning, a  Commerce Ministry spokesman said that China’s recently announced policy changes were not a concession to the Trump administration. The spokesman said that China would open its economy “at its own pace, in its own direction, which is already fixed.”

Against this volatile political backdrop, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up 0.51%, S&P 500 futures have added 0.47% and Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.53%.

Turning to the options pits, volume tanked on Wednesday amid rising uncertainty. Overall, only about 15.8 million calls and 13.7 million puts changed hands on the session. The CBOE single-session equity put/call volume ratio rebounded to 0.65. The 10-day moving average held at 0.66.

Wednesday’s options activity saw Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) attract a mixed bag of activity. Alibaba’s affiliate Ant Financial is headed toward a record valuation of nearly $150 billion.

Elsewhere, Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) options traders appear to be ignoring revenue concerns related to competition in cryptocurrency mining. Finally, General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) continued to see put options activity despite talks of hybrid deals and spinoffs.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA)

China’s leading mobile payment firm, Ant Financial, is in talks with investors to lift is fundraising target to about $8 billion from it’s previous target of $5 billion. If approved, the move would value Ant Financial at roughly $150 billion. After restructuring their relationship last year, Alibaba now owns 33% of Ant and could receive a windfall from such a lofty valuation when the Ant goes public.

Alibaba stock options traders appeared nonplussed by the news, likely due to current market sentiment surrounding Chinese stocks. Volume came in at well over 236,000 contracts, while calls only made up 55% of the day’s take.

That said, there is still plenty of optimism for BABA stock in the May options series. Currently, the May put/call open interest ratio comes in at 0.65. Peak call OI for the series lies at the in-the-money $175 strike, though, hinting that expectations are muted.

Nvidia Corporation (NVDA)

Nvidia stock popped about 6% higher on Tuesday, only to reverse lower yesterday amid broad market selling. NVDA has been volatile of late, as investors weigh the potential impact of Chinese upstart Bitmain, which makes cryptocurrency mining hardware. Bitmain developed an integrated circuit specifically for mining Ethereum mining, which analysts at Susquehanna believe could trim 20% off Nvidia’s bottom line.

Nvidia stock options traders remained overall bullish on NVDA yesterday. Calls made up 60% of Wednesday’s total volume. However, that volume was lacking. The 87,000 contracts traded on NVDA made up only about half of the stock’s daily average for the past 30 days.

Optimism is also lacking when looking out to the May series, which could be heavily affected by Nvidia’s quarterly earnings report. Currently, the May put/call OI ratio arrives at 0.93, with puts nearly in parity with calls. I would expect this ratio to trend lower heading into Nvidia’s earnings report once an official date is set.

General Electric Company (GE)

Beleaguered dog of the Dow General Electric is exploring hybrid deals and spinoffs, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported that GE is weighing spinning off a division to investors or combining a division with a smaller public company. That said, GE is also unlikely to sell its transportation business, which The Journal reports will be rolled out in an initial public offering or spun off.

The report arrived after regular trading hours, so GE options traders have yet to react to the news. GE stock was last seen higher by nearly 1% in premarket trading.  Wednesday’s options activity was still eventful, though. Volume rose to 128,000 contracts, with puts accounting for 52% of the day’s take.

Look for GE call activity to ramp up following The Journal’s report and as more details become available.

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