WhatsTrading.com Options Recap — 09/18/2012

Global equity markets slumped, but there’s not much volume or volatility on Wall Street Tuesday. France’s CAC 40 led European equity markets lower, losing 1.2 percent, on the heels of a disappointing auction of Spanish bonds. In Asia, trading was choppy, as players wait for the BoJ to release a statement after a two-day policy meeting Wednesday. In the US, the only economic stat of the day showed the NAHB index of homebuilder sentiment improving to 40 this month, from 38 and 3 points better than expectations. There was minimal reaction to the news and market action has been mostly rangebound during today’s session. With thirty minutes left to trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is flat and the NASDAQ is down 4 points.

Trading in the options market has picked up a bit from Monday’s slow pace and projected volume of 14 million contracts is in-line with the daily average seen during the past month. 7.6 million calls and 5.2 million puts traded so far. More than 860K calls traded in AGNC due to ex-dividend trading. TOT, KGC, and MTGE are also seeing ex-dividend activity. Yahoo (YHOO) is busy, as the stock moves up on news the company has closed a long-awaited deal with Alibaba. 159,000 options traded on YHOO today. Sept and Oct 9 puts on the iShares Japan Fund (EWJ) are seeing interest ahead of the Bank of Japan rate announcement and as tensions flare between China and Japan on the anniversary of the Japanese occupation of its giant neighbor. IAM Gold (IAG) is seeing a third day of bullish trading. Gilead Sciences (GILD) is active again, the day after JP Morgan raised it’s rating on the stock. GILD is at 52-week highs and 36,000 options traded on the biotech. Elsewhere, VIX is down .34 to 14.25 following a second day of lackluster trading. Action might pick up again later this week, however, as the September Quadruple Witch expiration is likely to drive better volume Thursday and Friday.

Notable Flow

CLWR – Bullish flow detected in Clearwire Corporation with 5539 calls trading, or 3x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $1.39 (-0.15) with ATMIV lifting by 10.65 point and 75% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 14:21

ITUB – Bearish activity detected in Itau Unibanco Banco Holding SA with 6487 puts trading, or 3x the recent avg daily put volume in the name. Shares near $16.775 (-0.385) with ATMIV lifting by 1.32 point and 86% of todays put premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert)

FOSL – Bullish flow detected in Fossil Inc with 2595 calls trading, or 3x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $89.56 (-2.24) with ATMIV lifting by 1.03 point and 73% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Auto Content (Trade-Alert))

High options volume is being seen in AGNC, YHOO, KGC, TOT, PG, IAG, MTGE, MPEL, GILD, BBBY

Movers
Symbol Last Change %Change StdDevs
HNI 26.02 -4.67 -15.2% 8.90
PMFG 8.39 +1.00 +13.5% 2.61
VELT 9.67 +1.07 +12.4% 3.17
DM 5.20 +0.57 +12.3% 3.08
NSPH 3.48 +0.38 +12.3% 3.05
SCLN 5.23 +0.54 +11.5% 3.94
ENR 75.50 +7.58 +11.2% 13.28
KWK 3.79 -0.47 -11.2% 2.67
TRGT 4.79 +0.48 +11.1% 2.82
MCGC 4.69 -0.58 -11.1% 7.94

Shakers (Implied volatility Movers)
Symbol IV[30d] IVChg IVChg% SkewAdjChg Last Change
PSEC 30.6% +11.8 +62.9% N/A $11.49 -0.72
AGNC 20.2% +7.1 +53.7% N/A $36.50 -0.18
TWO 12.2% -9.2 -43.1% -9.5 $11.80 -0.04
ESI 70.7% +16.7 +30.8% +10.6 $39.79 +1.11
SRZ 14.9% -3.5 -18.9% -3.7 $14.31 +0.01
CLDX 59.2% +8.9 +17.8% +3.9 $6.38 +0.44
WIN 20.1% -4.0 -16.7% -4.2 $10.72 -0.12
DOLE 48.5% -9.7 -16.7% -9.6 $13.48 -0.22
CLSN 88.0% +11.1 +14.4% +3.3 $5.49 +0.35
JAZZ 41.2% -6.9 -14.3% -7.3 $56.22 +0.93

52-Week Highs
101 new highs: AAPL ACMP AG AKR ALXN ARIA ATAX ATNI ATU AVD BBH BIIB BIOS CBOE CCOI CEB CFN CFNL CHBT CLDX CLSN COV CSOD CSU CXW CYBX CYH DISCK ECPG FBRC FBT FCE/A FET FRME FUN FVE GCI GHL GILD GOOG GRT HCA HOMB IART IBB IHF INFI INXN ISCA IYH JAZZ KCAP KFN LAZ LBY LNDC MAIN MANH MASI MAT MCO MD MMC MMS MVG NGG NX OFIX ONB ONXX OXM PAA PDLI PG PRE RGLD RSO SAP SHAW SIRO SNTS SPNC SPSC SRDX SWHC THC TR UBA UL UN USNA VAC VCIT VDC VHT WGO XBI XLP XLV XNPT ZMH

52-week Lows
9 new lows: BEBE BLDP COOL CRNT DUST ENG MATX PULS ZSL

Top Equity Blocks
4.02m NOK 2.88 -0.07 -2.4% FINRA-ADF 11:39:56 – Derivatively Priced
2.00m SPY 146.75 -0.27 -0.2% FINRA-ADF 13:17:13 – Average Price Trade
2.00m SPY 146.53 -0.18 -0.1% FINRA-ADF 12:06:25 – Average Price Trade
2.00m TROX 25.55 +0.13 +0.5% FINRA-ADF 10:13:30
2.00m NOK 2.90 -0.07 -2.4% FINRA-ADF 10:02:57 – Average Price Trade
1.47m DVAX 4.97 +0.20 +4.2% FINRA-ADF 12:39:38
1.47m IAU 17.24 +0.13 +0.8% FINRA-ADF 13:37:54 – Burst
1.41m JPM 40.85 -0.35 -0.8% FINRA-ADF 09:55:52 – Average Price Trade
1.30m SPY 146.40 -0.25 -0.2% FINRA-ADF 10:11:13 – Average Price Trade
1.21m TRMB 50.40 -1.25 -2.4% FINRA-ADF 13:43:58 – Burst

Tags: featured, market update, Sentiment

Category: Market Update