Stocks finish mixed, after a day of slow trading Friday. Read More.

Bed, Bath and Beyond (BBBY) is down 42 cents to $34.96 and large blocks of Sept puts traded. The activity looks a lot like a “tree”, where an investor bought 3000 Sept 35 puts, sold 3000 Sept 33 puts and sold 3000 Sept 32 puts. If so, they paid 17.5 cents. All traded on CBOE.

*Scanning all single-stocks subject to 2500 contracts minimum call or put volume

Poniard Pharmaceuticals (PARD) is up 28 cents and options volume is running 3X usual after a strategist does the following: sold 3400 Dec 2 – 5 puts spreads for $1.1 and sold 100 Dec 7.5 calls for $2.60. It might be closing or possibly an attempt to capture high implied vols, betting that the stock will settle between $5 and $7 at the December expiration. PARD is up 28 cents to $7.50 and average implied vols in PARD options is moving to 110, from about 106 late Thursday.

Seeing some interest in KeyBank (KEY) as the stock pushes to session highs. KEY is up 27 cents to $5.77 and a player recently bought 10,200 December 6 calls for 80 cents on the PHLX. 11.2K contracts now traded. 21K KEY calls traded, compared to 1.377 puts. Directional sentiment based on today’s total order flow in KEY is 71 percent bullish. No news on the stock today. Average implied volatility is up to 60, from about 58.5 late Thursday.

Kansas City Southern (KSU) gained 3.8 percent Thursday, even after the railroad company reported quarterly earnings of 7 cents per share on $341.3 mln in revenues, which fell short of expectations of 10 cents on $370.5 mln. Today, shares are down 69 cents to $20.34 and options volume is running 4X the usual. Top trade of the day is 3,000 Aug 22.5 calls on the ISE, which is an opening customer buyer, according to ISEE data. Looks like buyers of Aug 20 calls as well. Implied volatility is moving up to 47, from about 43 late Thursday.

Ford Motor (F) is up 54 cents to $7.93 and hit a new 52-week high today (chart) ahead of monthly auto sales results (Aug 3, 13:00) and as the House mulls a bill to expand the “cash for clunkers” program by $2 billion. The first $1 billion was depleted fast, as Americans dumped clunkers for new cars to capture $3500 to $4500 in government rebates. The program is expected to have boosted Detroit’s Big 3 July auto and truck sales by a significant margin. Consequently, Ford is running higher and traders are fired up about Ford Motor calls, with 120K contracts traded, or 4X the number of puts, and Aug 8 calls leading the order flow. Implied vols up to 55.5, from about 52.5 the day before.

Excel Maritime (EXM) calls are active ahead of earnings. Dryships (DRYS) hit a high of $7.07, but was recently down 12 cents to $6.60 and to session lows on the heels of its latest profit report. Shares had gained 27.8 percent in the past three weeks and today’s weakness might be a classic “buy the rumor, sell the news”. In EXM, sentiment seems decidedly more bullish. Shares are up 19 cents to $9.07 and almost 9000 calls traded, compared to 770 puts. Looks like buyers are taking positions in Aug 11 puts (5,800 traded, 70% ask-side, and open interest of 1,819). Meanwhile, implied volatility is moving up to 92, from 87, ahead of earnings next week (Aug 5, before market).

*Scanning all single-stocks subject to 2500 contracts minimum call or put volume