U.S. stock futures are trending higher this morning. Wall Street has turned its attention to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, today, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is slated to speak at the central bank’s annual retreat.

Fed watchers aren’t expecting much out of this speech, with Powell unlikely to deviate from the tone of this week’s notes from the last Federal Reserve meeting. However, investors will be looking for some clarity on what the Fed sees as the biggest trouble spots for the economy going forward.

Against this rocky backdrop, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are up 0.21% and S&P 500 futures are up 0.17%. Nasdaq-100 futures have rallied 0.25%.

In the options pits, volume remained below average on Thursday. Overall, only about 16.4 million calls and 14.4 million puts changed hands yesterday. On the CBOE, the single-session equity put/call volume ratio rose to 0.61. The 10-day moving average held at 0.63.

Semiconductors were back en vogue for options traders on Thursday. Calls on Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) were popular after an analyst price-target hike. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), meanwhile, attracted a rather bearish spread trade in light of the recent AMD strength. Finally, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) calls jumped on news that it was looking to bypass Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes billing overseas.

Let’s take a closer look:

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

A research note by Rosenblatt Securities analyst Hans Mosesmann sent AMD stock soaring to multiyear highs yesterday. Mosesmann lifted his price target on AMD to $30 from $27 after meeting with AMD executives for two days. Driving the hike, Mosesmann said that AMD should command about 25% of the x86 PC market like it did in 2006, but with a “top to bottom portfolio” this time.

AMD stock surged more than 6.6% following the hike, and options traders chased the rally. Volume rallied to over 645,000 contracts, or more than double AMD’s daily average. Calls claimed 68% of the day’s take.

That bullishness is filtering through to the September options series. Currently, this front-month put/call open interest ratio comes in at 0.63, with calls edging close to doubling puts in September. So far, this optimism is healthy, but a continued ramp higher without a consolidation break could mean a sharp round of profit taking for AMD speculators.

Netflix (NFLX)

Netflix is tired of using rival Apple’s iTunes store for overseas subscription payments. According to recent report, the company is finally doing something about it and testing a way around iTunes. Netflix started running the test in June in about 10 countries, expanding to 33 in August. If successful, this means more money for Netflix and less for Apple.

NFLX stock traders didn’t seem too thrilled with the move, as the stock dipped about 1.5%. Options traders, however, were call heavy on the day. Volume came in at an above average 186,000 contracts, and calls made up 61% of that activity.

What’s more, new call position activity has ramped up this week on NFLX. Specifically, the September put/call OI ratio has fallen from a reading of 1.1 on Tuesday to today’s reading of 0.93. That’s an 18% drop in the put/call OI ratio in less than a week, indicating a sharp rise in call buy to open (or sell to open) activity on NFLX.

Intel (INTC)

With AMD eating it’s lunch like it’s 2006, Intel stock has had quite a bad couple of months. INTC stock has fallen more than 21% since the beginning of June, as Intel still doesn’t have a response to AMD’s encroachment on its market share. This has led to some unusually bearish activity in the options pits for INTC stock, culminating in a considerably bearish spread yesterday.

Overall, activity was pretty neutral on INTC on Thursday. Total volume came in at a tame 161,000 contracts, with calls claiming 53% of the day’s take. A look at data on Trade-Alert.com, however, reveals that heavy activity was directed at both INTC’s Sep $45 call and $45 put strikes.

According to the data, 50,000 contracts traded at both September strikes, with the calls being sold and the puts being bought. The net credit on the spread was $2.00, or $200 per contract, totaling a credit of $100,000 for the entire position.

A spread where a trader sells a call and buys a put at the same strike is what’s known as a synthetic short. In other words, this options traders has essentially used options to “short sell” INTC stock. The trader gets to keep the premium received if INTC trades below $45 heading into expiration, and could even sell the put for a profit depending on how far INTC drops.

As of this writing, Joseph Hargett was long on Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) stock.