Avalon Bay shares are flat at $85.25 but left a small bearish spike off a 52-week high of $87.80 yesterday. Today option volume is 3x the daily average being driven by buying in the April $80 puts as a block of 2,800 was purchased at the $4.60 asking price. Total of 3,100 have traded

Joy-Global (JOYG) shares were down slightly Monday, with implied volatility up 7.3% and has one of the largest negative net Deltas among stocks today, an indication of bearish sentiment. At 10am there was a buyer of 2,000 February $55 puts at the 44 offer with shares at $54.20. The trade comes as shares are at resistance of a descending triangle that has formed, with $50 the lower support level, a potential target move from here. Shares of the mining machinery firm have been a big gainer in 2009, but now trade at 15.7X earnings, 6.9X book value, and 19.4X cash flow, a bit lofty on valuation. Shares also had a DeMark red 13 sell Indication.

Stocks are indicated modestly higher, as investors await a reading on consumer confidence and find little stock news to guide the early market action Tuesday morning. Thirty minutes before the opening bell on Wall Street, stock index futures hint at possible 30-point early gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Consumer confidence numbers come into focus at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. Economists expect the report to show improvement in December, up to 53 from 49.5 the month before.

However, the latest home price numbers were a bit worse than expected. According to the CaseShiller City Index, prices fell 7.28 percent in October — better than the -9.27 percent in September, but worse than the 7.1 percent economists had expected.

Stock index futures showed little reaction to the home price numbers. Bonds aren’t moving much either. The benchmark ten-year Treasury is flat and yields 3.84 percent.

The dollar edged up .14 to 91.76 against the yen. The euro gained .006 to 1.4436 on the buck.

Action in the commodities markets is mixed. Crude oil edged up .56 to $79.33. Gold slipped $1 to $1107 an ounce.

Among the stocks to watch, Fannie Mae (FNM), which rallied yesterday on news the Treasury Department was removing a cap on funds available to FNM and Freddie (FRE), is up again despite warning of rising mortgage loan delinquencies.

The brokerages might see relative weakness after BofA/Merrill analyst Guy Moszkowski cut earnings estimates on Goldman (GS), Morgan (MS), and JP Morgan (JPM). Vivus (VVUS) added 3 percent after submitting a new app for an obesity drug. Amazon.com (AMZN) edged higher after Piper Jaffray raised their price target to $172 from $173.

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Some less actively traded names seeing bullish order flow: Tyson (TSN), China Northeast Petroleum (NEP), American Science and Engineering (ASEI). Bearish order flow: Tessara Tech (TSRA), ACE Limited (ACE), Headwaters (HW). Ex-Div Activity: Deere (DE), Dow Chemical (DOW), Nucor (NUE), Starwood Hotels (HOT), American Agency Capital (AGNC), Redwood Trust (RWT), Sysco (SYY), Alexandria RE (ARE), Alaska Communication (ALSK), Avon (AVP), Capstead (CMO), Illinois Toolworks (ITW), Warnaco (WAC), Windstream (WIN), Franklin (BEN), Edison International (EIX), Entertainment Properties (EPR), National Fuel Gas (NFG), First American (FAF), Cardinal Health (CAH), Boston Properties (BXP), Iowa Telecomm (IWA), Pacific Gas (PCG).

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

STEC, a Santa Ana, Cali storage device maker, is up 8.7 percent to $17.07 on no obvious news. Options action is brisk as well, with 22,000 calls and 6,915 puts traded. Jan 15 and 17 calls are the most actives, about half trading ask-side. Implied vols have lifted to about 72, up about 7.4 percent since late last week.

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

iShares Small Cap Fund (IWM) hit a new 52-week high today, but slipped mid-morning and is down 10 cents to $63.26. Meanwhile, IWM Jan 62 put is now today’s most actively traded option. The 22,530 contracts traded includes the purchase of 14K at 79 cents plus another 7,000 at 80 cents, according to a source on the CBOE where the 21K contracts traded at 9:35 central time.