Altera (ALTR) is unchanged at $20.04 and 8,955 puts traded so far. The volume represents 10X the expected and compared to 370 puts. Most of the activity is in Dec 18, 19, and 20 puts, with about 80 percent of the total volume (about 6,600 contracts) is trading ask-side. It is possibly closing trades, as open interest is sufficient to cover and there is no news on the chip equipment maker. ALTR reported earnings on Oct 13.

Activision (ATVI) shares have gapped lower, down about 3.4% to $11, and option volume is 2x the daily average. Notable trades include a sweep buyer of 7400 Jan 2010 calls at the 11 line for 85 cents apiece and, separately, a sale of the Nov. $11/$12.50 call spread 1,000x for a 40 net credit

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

Symatec shares are up $1.40 to $17.16 following this morning’s earnings report from the software security firm. Notable trade was a sale of 7,745 of the November $17 calls at the bid. Total of 10,000 have traded with 60% going at the bid side. Prior open interest is sufficient to cover so could be liquidation. Implied volatility getting the post earnings beat-down with Nov. dropping some 25% down to 35% level.

The top equity options trade today is a lot of 10.5K Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Jan10 calls at the $20 strike for 55 cents on CBOE, which looks like a buyer ahead of earnings today, after market. Shares are up $1.21 to $14.32 and attempting to stabilize after a four-day 21.7 percent slide.

Cummins (CMI) with a bullish trade just before the close Wednesday, as a trader buys the November $45/$48 call spread for 3,000 contracts at $1.20. Cummins will report earnings on October 30th, before market. Shares are very oversold here and this is a bullish bet on the diesel engine maker into earnings.

Stocks are set to open higher Thursday after data showed the economy growing at its fastest pace in two years. Thirty minutes before the opening bell on Wall Street, stock index futures hint at a possible 80 or 90 point early gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Gross Domestic Product [GDP] improved at a 3.5 percent annual pace during third quarter, according to the Commerce Department. GDP was unchanged in the second quarter and the improvement in the third quarter marks the first increase of 2009. It was also better than the 3.2 percent economists had expected.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that weekly jobless claims fell by 1,000 to 530,000 last week. Economists were looking for a drop to 6,000. However, continuing claims fell sharply, to 5.797 million from 5,945 million and well below economist estimates of 5.905 million.

Stock index futures rallied on the data. Bonds fell. The benchmark ten-year Treasury is down 13/32nd and now yields 3.465 percent.

The dollar added .71 to 91.39 on the Japanese yen. The euro gained .0065 to 1.4779.

Crude gained $1 to $78.46 and gold added $7 to 1037.50 an ounce.

Among the stocks to watch, Procter & Gamble (PG) will help the Dow after the consumer products company reported quarterly earnings of $1.06 per share, which beat Street estimates by 7 cents. PG is up 3.5 percent.

Motorola (MOT), Symantec (SYMC), and Sprint Nextel (S) are also higher on earnings news. Nokia (NOK) is up in sympathy with MOT. Genworth (GNW) added 5 percent ahead of earnings and after BofA/Merrill upgraded the stock to Buy.

Exxon Mobile (XOM), First Solar (FSLR), and Cerner (CERN) are seeing post-earnings weakness.

Sprint Nextel (S) is up 3 cents to $3.20 and one player sells 10K Nov 3 puts at 15 cents each ahead of earnings, tomorrow before market. Looks like a closing sale, perhaps on the view shares will hold above $3 through the Nov expiration. Shares have been under pressure in the past weeks heading up to the news and are down more than 30 percent since the co. last reported earnings in late July.