Chesapeake (CHK) is up $1.15 to $26.15 after CNBC’s Jim Cramer made positive comments on the latest issue of Mad Money. Shares gapped higher and options activity is now 2X the average daily. One player bought 7000 Jan 25 puts at 71 cents against shares on a 33 delta. More than 10.4K now traded vs. 27K in open interest. Some investors might be buying-to-close positions as the stock launches higher Friday.

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

Titanium Metals (TIE) is up 14 cents to $11.40 and recent options action includes two sweeps of 5000 (2500X2) Jan 12.5 calls ask-side for 25 cents. 6289 now traded (90 percent ask-side). Implied vols lifted 5 percent to 49.3. So, this looks like call buyers in the metals company. Shares hit a low of $11.13 have have been battling back to $11.39, +.13 on the day. There was a noticable spike in share volume at the time of the sweeps as well. No headlines on TIE today.

Walgreens shares being hit down 2.5% to $35.50 and option volume 4x the daily average with 16,000 puts trading to 3,300 calls. Most active strike is the January $37 put with 7,010 contracts traded with a block of 6,500 going at the $2.00 bid price. Prior opn interest in the strike is 13,000 contracts so potentially closing of a position opened on 12/16 when option was trading around 90c. There is fresh buying of 1,000 contracts of the April $33 put. The company reports earnings Monday before the bell.

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

Marvell Technology shares up 3% to $19.90, a new 52-week high, and option volume 3x the daily average. Notable trade is a sweep of 11,690 Feb. $21 calls at the 90c asking price. Prior open interest in strike 360 contracts so fresh buying.

Ryland (RYL) is off 3 cents to $18.84 and it appears that an investor sold Jan 20 puts at $1.55 (to close) to open a new position in the April 16 – 20 put spread at $1.90, 20000X on PHLX. This is possibly an investor looking to hedge a position in the homebuilder an extra few months.

Stocks are set to open steady on “quadruple witch” expiration Friday. Less than thirty minutes before the opening bell on Wall Street, stock index futures hint at a possible 20 or 30 point early gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

With no economic data to guide the early action, the focus is on earnings. Research In Motion (RIMM) rallied 12 percent after reporting quarterly earnings of $1.10 per share, which beat Street estimates by 6 cents. Revenues also topped expectations and RIMM guided estimates higher for the fourth quarter.

Tech bellwether Oracle (ORCL) gained 4.6 percent on better than expected earnings and revenues numbers. However, PALM is off nearly 10 percent after reporting a 37-cent per share loss for the quarter, which was a nickel worse than analysts had expected.

Among the other stocks to watch, LDK Solar (LDK) is seeing pre-market weakness, down 10 percent, and the drop is being attributed to the pricing of an offering. NetApp (NTAP) fell after Goldman downgraded the stock to Neutral, down from its Conviction Buy List. Dow component Boeing (BA) could see action on Dow Jones reports Irish carrier Raynier is backing out of plans to buy 200 planes.

Some of the energy names will see early strength after crude oil gained $2.00 to $74.65 a barrel. Gold lost $4 to $1103.40 an ounce.

Bonds are offered, with the ten-year Treasury down 4/32nd and yielding 3.49 percent in early trading. The dollar added .45 to 90.41 against the yen. The euro slipped .0006 to 1.4333 against the buck.