Some less actively traded names seeing bullish order flow: Brown and Brown (BRO), TIBX (also pre-earnings), Dollar General (DG), Bearish order flow: Newell Rubbermaid (NWL), General Maritime (GMR), Calcon Carbon (CCC) Post-Earnings: Best Buy (BBY), Red Hat (RHT), Lulumon Athletica (LULU) Pre-Earnings: Oracle (ORCL) Ex-div.: Pengrowth Energy (PGH)

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

Brocade (BRCD) is trading down 20 cents to $5.63 after Bernstein cut the stock to Market Perform from Outperform. The reaction in the options market is interesting. While put volume rose to about 48,000 contracts, and 13X the normal, most of the action has been on the bid. The top trade is 2003 July 6 puts on the bidding price of 69 cents. 29.3K now traded (56% Bid / 27% Mid). Another 10.6K May 6 puts traded (56% Bid / 24% Mid). Implied volatility eased about 3 percent to 41.5, which is also consistent with premium selling. So, some investors might be taking advantage of today’s weakness to sell $6 May and July puts on the chipmaker.

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

Qualcomm (QCOM) has seen a day of brisk trading, with almost 200K options traded on the chipmaker so far. Shares are up $2.65 to $42.84 after the company boosted its second quarter guidance on stronger performance from licensing and chip set businesses. 126K calls and 70K puts traded on the news. Top trades included a seller of 10K April 45 calls against a position in shares, 10000X, and an April – July 45 call spread at $1.18, 5000X. April puts and calls with strike prices ranging from 39 to 47 are among the most actives. Meanwhile, implied volatility is down 12 percent to 23.5, as today’s news seems to have eased some of the anxiety that surfaced when earnings news sent shares tumbling 14.2 percent on Jan 28.

Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) is up $1.22 to $50.60 and bullish options activity is detected after Deutsche Bank initiated the stock with a Buy rating. Shares are up and morning trades include the purchase of 3200 April 55 calls at 70 cents each. 7563 calls traded total, or 2X the recent average daily. Implied volatility is up about 3.5 to 74.

Ericsson (ERIC) slipped 41 cents to $10.31 yesterday and 5690 April 10 puts changed hands. 91 percent traded at the asking price and the top trade was 1522 contracts at 30 cents on ISE. Open interest increased by 2172 to 8264 and now the second largest OI position in the name (behind the 25.8K in the Jul 12.5 calls). Implied volatility rose about 4 percent towards 40 after China Unicom (CHU), an ERIC customer, fell on disapppointing earnings.