Options Recap — 7/25/2012

Market action is mixed late-Wednesday. Earnings news is driving a lot of the flow. While Apple Computer (AAPL) was in the spotlight following its disappointing report, post-earnings debacles are also being seen in variety of other names like Netflix (NFLX), RadioShack (RSH), and TripAdviors (TRIP). Strength in blue chips Caterpillar (CAT) and Boeing (BA) have helped to keep the Dow above water, but the persistently weak revenue shortfalls reflected in the second quarter numbers thus far has been a source of increasing investor anxiety. Yet, Wednesday, modest gains across Eurozone equity markets after yields on Spanish and Italian debt eased off record highs seemed to add some stability in morning trading, despite a big miss from the latest Housing numbers. New Home Sales fell to an annual rate of just 350K last month and well below expectations of 373K. Gold is a bright spot, gaining nearly $30 to $1605.50 an ounce. Crude slipped on weekly inventory data early, but finished strong, up 35 cents to $88.85 per barrel. After two days of triple digit losses, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 58 points and 58 points from its best levels. But the tech-heavy NASDAQ lost 7 points.

Trading in the options market is active today. With thirty minutes left to trade, 6.6 million calls and 6 million puts traded across the exchanges. Some of the earnings movers, like AAPL, NFLX, and CAT, are seeing unusually high volume. Large blocks of puts traded on some of the global ETFs this morning – EFA and EEM – as some investors were apparently rolling bearish positions from January to June 2013. JC Penney (JCP) saw a flurry of activity midday on talk of rebranding its department stores. A large buyer of January 2014 calls surfaced in Alcoa (AA) Wednesday. Meanwhile, high pre-earnings volume is being seen in Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Sprint (S), and Fortinet (FTNT). CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is down .95 to 19.52.

Notable Flow
HOT – Bearish activity detected in Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc with 5435 puts trading, or 3x the recent avg daily put volume in the name. Shares near $49.96 (0.33) with ATMIV lifting by 1.01 point and 60% of todays put premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 14:11
OC – Bearish activity detected in Owens Corning Inc with 26078 puts trading, or 28x the recent avg daily put volume in the name. Shares near $26.41 (-1.26) with ATMIV lifting by 2.31 point and 81% of todays put premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 13:11
OVTI – Bullish flow detected in OmniVision Technologies Inc with 9655 calls trading, or 2x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $12.81 (0.73) with ATMIV lifting by 2.49 point and 83% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 12:01

High options volume is being seen in AAPL, S, NFLX, LVS, CAT, BRCM, SYMC, VALE, JCP, GLW

Movers
Symbol Last Change %Change StdDevs
INVN 12.19 +3.00 +32.6% 10.65
RSH 2.58 -1.07 -29.3% 12.40 Post-Earnings
LL 41.58 +9.00 +27.6% 13.10 Post-Earnings
RVBD 18.44 +3.89 +26.7% 6.66 Post-Earnings
MITK 3.69 +0.77 +26.4% 3.48 Post-Earnings
NFLX 60.63 -19.76 -24.6% 6.96 Post-Earnings
ZLC 3.18 +0.61 +23.7% 7.51
IGT 11.69 -3.00 -20.4% 13.28 Post-Earnings
SWI 49.56 +8.08 +19.5% 7.75 Post-Earnings
IRBT 23.08 +3.59 +18.4% 12.49 Post-Earnings

Shakers (Implied volatility Movers)
NXY 16.0% +5.8 +57.5% +4.6 $25.76 -0.24
EW 24.8% -23.6 -48.8% -21.3 $104.77 +6.12 Post-Earnings
BWLD 31.9% -23.4 -42.3% -30.1 $70.60 -8.30 Post-Earnings
PLCM 55.1% -39.6 -41.8% -38.9 $8.00 -1.11 Post-Earnings
PNRA 28.5% -20.1 -41.4% -17.5 $153.51 +11.60 Post-Earnings
RVBD 54.8% -35.5 -39.3% -31.8 $18.44 +3.89 Post-Earnings
NFLX 57.4% -32.6 -36.2% -33.5 $60.63 -19.76 Post-Earnings
UIS 49.1% -27.5 -35.9% -24.9 $18.69 +2.10 Post-Earnings
ARR 11.5% -6.0 -34.2% -4.1 $7.50 +0.06
AAPL 22.8% -11.8 -34.1% -12.3 $574.78 -26.14 Post-Earnings

52-Week Highs
32 new highs: AGG ALXN AOL ARRY ASR CENTA CYS EW GPS GRFS GY HCP HLSS HRG HYD LL MAT MDCO MDVN PCH PNM PZA RPAI SWI TLT TMF TWO TYD UBT USNA UST VASC

52-week Lows
122 new lows: ACI AERL ALR ALU ANAD ANGO ANR APEI ATPG AUO BBY BEAT BTU CAJ CBZ CENX CEP CHRW CLF COHU CTIC CTRP CY CYOU DB DECK DEER DELL DM DMND EDMC EGL ENZ ETFC EXPD F FNFG GAME GILT GLW GM GNK GPRE HHS HPQ HSII HTCH IGT INFA INFN INVE ISIL ISS ITMN IVAC JAG JKS JRCC JST KEM KOL KOS KV/A KWT LDK LINC MCP MERC MPO MTOR MTSN NAFC NAT NFLX NIHD OMG OSG PC PLCM RAH REMX RSH RT RVM SAN SATC SBLK SCSC SHI SID SLH SN SNE SORL SQNS SUPX SVN SVU TAN TBF TBT TEF TMV TSN TSYS TTT TTWO TYO ULBI VALE VALE/P VELT VIV VOG WBSN WIT WLP WLT WRES WYNN XME XRX

Top Equity Blocks
4.75m BCS 9.38 +0.01 +0.1% 11:44:08 – Average Price Trade ADR
2.32m SIRI 2.10 +0.06 +2.7% 13:14:20
1.89m SIRI 2.11 +0.06 +3.0% 13:56:15
1.87m SIRI 2.11 +0.06 +2.9% 13:56:25
1.59m VWO 38.37 +0.12 +0.3% 12:30:16 – Average Price Trade
1.30m WLP 55.04 -6.38 -10.4% 10:32:01
1.29m GCVRZ 1.42 -0.03 -2.1% 11:03:05 – Burst
1.28m ALU 1.05 -0.04 -3.7% 10:56:15
1.20m BCS 9.33 +0.02 +0.2% 12:13:32 – Average Price Trade ADR
1.20m EWG 18.94 +0.20 +1.1% 11:19:01 – Next Day

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Category: Market Update