Barrick Gold (ABX) edges 17 cents higher to $49.34 after gold rebounded from recent losses and is trading up $11 to $17.36 an ounce. Options action in the gold miner today includes a 4150-lot of Feb 50 calls for 57 cents at around 10:00 when the market was 53 to 55 cents. Thirty minutes later, after shares had lifted about 40 cents to $49.09, a multi-exchange sweep of 1,483 contracts traded for 73 cents. Data indicate customers are buying to open Feb 50 calls on ABX. More than 10,000 now traded and the market is 87 to 89 cents. Feb 49, Weekly 49, and Weekly 50 calls are seeing interest as well and levels of implied volatility in ABX options are up 3 percent to 31. Bullish trading comes ahead of a Feb 16 earnings report, which is the Thursday before options-expeiration Friday (but after the 2/10 weekly expiry).