Vornado Realty Trust (VNO) is down $1.44 to $34.75 and March puts are active after an investor apparently bought the 35/30 ratio spread 2500X for about 80 cents. Given the weakness in the share price, both legs are possibly opening and the strategist is perhaps targeting $30 per share by next week’s expiration. However, it is also possible that this is a roll of short puts down from the 35s to 30s. Tomorrow’s open interest should shed some light.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJX) has slipped back to unchanged with Dow components American Express (AXP), GE (GE), McDonald’s (MCD), and Pfizer (PFE) seeing relative weakness. Citi (C) and BofA (BAC) have surrendered most of their early gains and both up less than 1.5 percent.

Alliance Bernstein (AB), a NY-based asset manager, is up 76 cents to $12.25 after the company announced today that its assets under management declined by 8.2 percent to $394 bln in February. In the options market, volume is running at 11X the typical pace with investors showing increasing interest in March 15 and 12.5 calls. Looks like buyers dominating the flow and opening new positions.

20,000 Microsoft April 13 ‘reversals’ traded this morning, with customer buying the deep April 13 call and selling the put, vs 2million shares of stock in a nondirectional carry trade. Net price was zero, suggesting cust may have needed to roll long-stock into an April hedge, or raise some short-term cash from long-stock without losing the net long economic position.

Customer bought March-April 22 put spreads in the Health Care ETF today. Paid 45cents net, and appears to roll part of the March 22-23 putspd sold last wk for 50cents.

Utilities ETF up 1% near 23.27 and a customer bought a massive block of 100,000 Sep 26 calls for $1.075 to open a new position. SocGen customer initiated the trade, in striking similarity to last week’s buy of 150,000 April 25 calls for 45cents when XLU was near 23.11. AMEX floor broker BLT Securities crossed the trade, and this trade will add another large chunk to upside open interest in XLU.

Starwood Hotels (HOT) puts are active. Shares are up 41 cents to $11.74 and traders are showing interest in March 12.5 and 10 puts, with about 8,200 traded and 54 percent trading ask-side of the bid-ask spread. The co. is due to present at the Raymond James Institutional Investor conference in 10 min.

National Semi (NSM) is down 22 cents to $11.48 and options volume is running at 2X the average daily. 13K puts and 3,200 calls traded so far. Mar 10 puts are the most actives, with almost 10K traded. Looks like sellers dominating the flow, collecting 15 cents, after the company reported earnings and announced plans to cut 26 percent of its work force. Implied volatilty is down to 71, from about 78 late yesterday.

Select Sector Financials (XLF) Mar 7 call is the most actively traded contract Wednesday morning. 40.4K traded so far. Some investors might be closing positions as the exchange-traded fund moves up 28 cents to $7.47 and beyond the strike price. XLF is up 2 percent from the record lows seen Friday and now in positive territory for the month (which would be the first positive month since July). XLF April 7-8-9 call butterfly is also seeing action, after a strategist bought it 5000X for 19 cents–targeting $ 8 per share.

General Electric options lead the early flow today, as shares gain more than 4.5%, near $9.30 as broad market rally holds . Nearly 40,000 contracts on the tape in first 20minutes of the day with optoin buyers leading the flow and much of the action in the March 11 calls, where buyers are paying 13 to 17cents in what may close some of the open interest at the strike. Bearish view also expressed as one customer paid $1.15 for 7000 April 9 puts on the PHLX.