Options Recap — 07/12/2012

Stock market averages fell in morning trading, but action has turned mixed heading into the final hour Thursday. Losses across Eurozone’s equity markets and ongoing weakness in the euro set the table for morning weakness on Wall Street. The European currency fell to two-year lows of less than 1.22 against the buck. Meanwhile, a 2.6 percent loss in Spain’s IBEX helped pace a decline in European equity markets. Asia’s markets were broadly lower as well, with Japan’s Nikkei losing 1.5 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shedding 2 percent. The concerns about a worldwide economic slowdown and market volatility quickly spilled on to US shores. The Dow faltered early despite 4+ percent rallies in Procter & Gamble and Merck. While PG helped the Dow on news activist investor Bill Ackman is interested in buying some of the company, Merck rallied on an analyst upgrade and positive drug trial results. On the economic front, the latest jobless claims data, which showed a surprise decline of 15,000 last week, did little to bolster sentiment through midday. Yet, the selling pressure never gathered any significant momentum and, instead, trading had turned mixed heading into the closing bell. The Dow is now up 5 points, but the NASDAQ lost 17. CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) hit a morning high of 19.51, but was recently up just .12 to 18.07. Options volumes are running at their best levels so far this week. 6.4 million calls and 6.7 million puts traded so far.

Trader Talk
JPM Morgan — 3 Things to Watch
Copper Slips on China Growth Concerns
Mortgage Rates to Record Lows
EUR/USD at Two-Year Lows: 1.2213 — Chart
Commodities Mixed:
Crude Oil: +.06, $85.87
Gold: -$4.5, $1571

Movers
Symbol Last Change %Change StdDevs
SVU 2.72 -2.57 -48.6% 17.35
CALX 5.09 -1.39 -21.5% 5.03
AFFY 14.37 +2.42 +20.3% 7.65
OPTT 2.93 -0.62 -17.5% 1.41 Pre-Earnings
TXI 43.69 +5.64 +14.8% 5.90 Post-Earnings
AMPE 3.70 -0.58 -13.6% 1.76
GNOM 2.57 -0.36 -12.3% 1.25
SWY 15.83 -2.15 -12.0% 7.30
DRWI 3.07 -0.41 -11.9% 3.47 Post-Earnings
LNG 15.76 +1.60 +11.3% 2.43

Shakers (Implied volatility Movers)
Symbol IV[30d] IVChg IVChg% SkewAdjChg Last Change
AMLN 5.1% +1.2 +31.2% N/A $30.80 +0.04
INFY 33.2% -14.5 -30.4% -15.7 $38.80 -4.81 Post-Earnings
SWY 43.4% +9.8 +29.2% +2.1 $15.83 -2.15
TXI 41.7% -16.7 -28.5% N/A $43.75 +5.70 Post-Earnings
P 77.8% +14.9 +23.7% +15.6 $10.44 +0.49
BMRN 65.1% +12.2 +23.0% +11.6 $42.59 +1.13
KR 20.7% +3.8 +22.8% +2.6 $21.95 -0.86
FAST 32.6% -9.5 -22.6% -9.4 $42.46 +2.65 Post-Earnings
MBI 89.9% +14.7 +19.6% +16.5 $10.55 +0.71
MAR 29.2% -7.1 -19.4% -10.4 $35.74 -2.29 Post-Earnings
Change in 30day ATMIV vs prior session close

52-Week Highs
51 new highs: ACC AMGN ARI ATO AWR BMRN CFNL CHD CHTR CLP CNL CPT CRYP DGX DK DLR DYAX EXR FFNW FRT HCN HCP HSNI HW KNOL KONG KW MRK NNN OREX OTTR PPS RINO RPAI SEM SIR SKT SPSC SSS SWX TEG TGT TXI UFPI UIL UNS WEC WMT WR WTR WY

52-week Lows
108 new lows: ABX ACH ACLS ADTN ANGO ANR APPY ASA ASX AWC AXU BPAX BRFS CAGC CAJ CALX CAVM CBAK CCO CDE CENX CEVA CGX CHKP CROX CSC CTRP CVVT CY CYOU CZR EA EDMC ENZ EXM EXPD FCN FLIR FOSL FSL FST FWLT GG GME GPRE GRPN GTE GTI HMIN HTHT INFY INVE IVN JAG JBT JCP JNPR JOY JST KEG KRO LEDS LMNX LPR LRCX LXK MATX MCP MKTS MRVL MSPD MTOR MTRN NIHD NILE OPLK PAAS PAL PGH PWAV PWE R RIC ROVI RVBD SID SINA SLH SMS SNE SONS SORL SVU SWY SYMC TC THRM TROX TTWO VC VOG VTUS WAVX WBMD WIT WLT ZQK ZX

Top Equity Blocks
2.70m BAX 53.88 -0.09 -0.2% 14:26:06
2.50m CSCO 16.04 -0.34 -2.1% 10:06:01 – Burst
2.00m MSFT 28.78 -0.52 -1.8% 14:42:35
2.00m QTM 1.41 +0.01 +0.7% 11:47:03
1.99m MSFT 28.73 -0.57 -2.0% 09:48:52
1.50m GGP 17.80 -0.28 -1.5% 10:08:51 – Burst
1.20m KO 76.80 -0.69 -0.9% 12:28:47 – Tied to Options
1.10m ARCO 14.53 -0.18 -1.2% 15:14:44
1.00m CSCO 16.09 -0.29 -1.8% 15:24:46
1.00m IRM 31.15 -0.06 -0.2% 13:38:33

Notable Flow

HBAN – Bearish activity detected in Huntington Bancshares Inc with 19524 puts trading, or 14x the recent avg daily put volume in the name. Shares near $6.34 (-0.12) with ATMIV lifting by 1.69 point and 68% of todays put premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 14:31
HW – Bullish flow detected in Headwaters Inc with 4383 calls trading, or 15x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $5.8 (0.1) with ATMIV lifting by 8.54 point and 98% of todays call premium trading offer side. 13:01
MAPP – Bearish activity detected in MAP Pharmaceuticals Inc with 4073 puts trading, or 27x the recent avg daily put volume in the name. Shares near $14.055 (-0.595) with ATMIV lifting by 20.16 point and 53% of todays put premium trading offer side. 12:51
PZG – Bullish flow detected in Paramount Gold and Silver Corp with 3256 calls trading, or 2x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $2.3701 (0.0501) with ATMIV lifting by 2.35 point and 75% of todays call premium trading offer side. 12:41
IMGN – Bearish activity detected in ImmunoGen Inc with 2948 puts trading, or 12x the recent avg daily put volume in the name. Shares near $15.89 (-1.47) with ATMIV lifting by 2.62 point and 54% of todays put premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 12:31

High options volume is being seen in Intel (INTC), Pfizer (PFE), and Supervalu (SVU)

Tags: featured, market update, Sentiment

Category: Market Update