WhatsTrading.com Options Recap — 10/05/2012

Trading has turned mixed late-Friday. The domestic economy was in focus early after the Labor Department reported that 114,000 new jobs were created in September. The number fell 6,000 short of projections. However, last month’s data were revised up to 142K from 96K and the report also showed the rate of unemployed falling to 7.8 percent in September. Economists were looking for the rate of unemployed to hold steady at 8.1 percent. In overseas action, market averages were broadly higher after the ECB held its policy meeting Thursday and ECB President Draghi pledged bond buybacks to help the deeply indebted EU members. The euro is up .1 percent to 1.303 against the dollar. On Wall Street, market averages were sporting gains through midday, but action is slowing heading into the final hour. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is now up 40 points. The NASDAQ has erased its gain and is off 3.2 points.

Overall trading volumes picked up a bit this morning on the jobs report and are now slowing ahead of the weekend. Fall is in the air, the leaves are changing colors. How many more weekends left to swing the 9 iron or enjoy a picnic and barbeque at the local park? It’s October 5 and traders are already hitting the exits this afternoon to enjoy the weekend. After an uptick in activity this morning, projected volume in the options market for Friday is about 15.6 million contracts, which is in-line with the recent daily average. We continue to see heavy trading in PCS in the wake of this week’s news that the company is combining with T-Mobile. The stock is down 2 cents to $12.67. 29 million shares and 239,000 options traded on PCS. First Solar (FSLR) and Zynga (ZNGA) are both under pressure and seeing higher options volumes today. 137K options traded in FSLR and more than 100K in ZNGA. GM and Ford have been the subject of bullish trading. Bullish traders surfaced in Groupon (GRPN) as well. Meanwhile, CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) fell to 13.67 early, but has since rebounded and is now down just .09 to 14.46.

Notable Flow

IPXL – Bearish activity detected in Impax Laboratories Inc with 4713 puts trading, or 86x the recent avg daily put volume in the name. Shares near $26.73 (0.33) with ATMIV lifting by 4.59 point and 99% of todays put premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 12:31

AUQ – Bullish flow detected in AuRico Gold Inc with 4578 calls trading, or 3x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $6.7 (-0.19) with ATMIV lifting by 3.53 point and 73% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 12:21

TSRA – Bullish flow detected in Tessera Technologies Inc with 2189 calls trading, or 24x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $14.05 (0.41) with ATMIV lifting by 3.41 point and 90% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Trade-Alert) 12:01

High options volume is being seen in PCS, FSLR, ZNGA, VRNG, GM, GRPN, HD, PSX, XLY

Movers
Symbol Last Change %Change StdDevs
PPP 7.16 +1.76 +32.6% 10.89
MRCY 7.91 -1.73 -17.9% 7.40
CACH 2.69 -0.56 -17.2% 5.82
ZNGA 2.34 -0.47 -16.8% 4.14
IQNT 7.65 -1.41 -15.6% 4.80
XNPT 12.75 +1.60 +14.3% 4.90
DTLK 7.43 -1.15 -13.4% 6.56
LPHI 2.50 +0.27 +12.1% 0.55 Pre-Earnings
CHBT 2.43 -0.33 -12.0% 0.80
FSLR 19.88 -2.67 -11.8% 2.71

Shakers (Implied volatility Movers)
Symbol IV[30d] IVChg IVChg% SkewAdjChg Last Change
STZ 25.5% -19.4 -43.3% -18.8 $35.97 +1.25 Post-Earnings
QCOR 111.7% +17.8 +19.0% +17.4 $19.01 -0.35
PCS 79.8% +12.7 +19.0% +13.3 $12.69 -0.00
ARR 13.2% +2.1 +18.3% +nan $7.69 +0.03
SPLK 60.4% +8.3 +15.9% +3.6 $33.00 -1.94
END 60.7% +8.1 +15.4% +0.7 $9.49 -0.26
KRFT 15.5% -2.5 -13.8% -1.7 $47.61 +0.98
GRPN 86.8% +10.2 +13.4% +8.0 $5.29 +0.49
THC 42.5% -6.0 -12.3% -6.4 $6.20 -0.08
RY 14.7% +1.6 +12.2% +nan $58.53 -0.08

52-Week Highs
292 new highs: .DJX .OEX .XEO ABT ACAD ACCL ACE ACGL ACN ADP ADS AFFY AGII AHL AKAM ALJ ALL ALOG ALXN AN AON AOS ARIA ARRY ARTC ASPS ASR BANR BAX BBH BDSI BEN BLDR BRK/B BRLI BUD BWS CAB CAG CAMP CAP CB CCE CCK CEB CELG CLDX CLGX CLMT CLX CMCSA CMRE COF COV CP CRL CSE CSM CSOD CSU CTGX CUK CVS CX DDM DEO DFS DGX DISCA DISCK DK DORM DST DSW DTN DW DWRE EHTH EIX ENOC EPD ESC ESRX EWL EWM EWW EXAS EXH EXLS EXP FAF FBT FFCH FFIN FICO FISV FITB FIW FMBI FMS FMX FNF FRX FVE GE GEVA GIL GOLD GOOG GPS GRFS GSK GWR GXP GY HBAN HBC HCBK HCC HCII HD HDV HHC HII HNP HRB HRS HSTM HTH IBB IBM IHF IIJI INFI IOSP IP IRM ISBC IYH JAH JAZZ JKHY KBH KS LAD LBTYA LEG LG LIFE LINE LMT LSE LXU MA MAIN MANH MDAS MDT MDVN MEMP MHO MHP MIC MKL MLI MMM MMP MON MORN MPC MPW MRH MRK MTB MVG MYL N NCT NFP NSR NTE NTSP NVO NVS NWN NWS NWSA NYB NYT OCN OFIX OKE ONXX OSTK PAA PAG PBH PCEF PDFS PDLI PFE PFS PGF PHH PLCE PM PMT PNM POOL PPH PPP PRGO PVH QGEN RAX RMD ROP RPAI RPRX RTH SCS SHAW SHW SIGI SIM SIRO SLW SMBL SNI SNSS SNTS SPLV SRC SRDX SSI STC STE STEI STSA STZ SVXY TAO TBBK TCAP TCBI TDG TFX TMO TREX TRW TSCO TSM TTC TU TWO UDOW UGI UHS UL UN USB UVV V VAC VAL VASC VCR VDC VHT VIAB VPFG VR VRSN VYM WAB WAL WDFC WES WFM WHR WMT WPI WPPGY WSO WST WTFC XL XLP XLV XNPT XOM XXIA

52-week Lows
28 new lows: BBRG CACH CEVA CKSW CTIC DOG DVR DXD ENPH HMY IDIX IQNT ISIL KITD MCOX MRCY OIIM PNSN SDOW UVXY VIIX VIXM VIXY VXX VXZ XRTX ZAZA ZNGA

Top Equity Blocks
1.65m VWO 42.48 +0.16 +0.4% FINRA-ADF 13:24:19 – Average Price Trade
1.50m ZNGA 2.35 -0.47 -16.5% FINRA-ADF 14:14:03
1.50m ZNGA 2.28 -0.52 -18.4% FINRA-ADF 10:32:00
1.50m ZNGA 2.29 -0.52 -18.4% FINRA-ADF 10:31:35
1.34m SIRI 2.71 +0.01 +0.6% FINRA-ADF 12:15:25
1.20m ZNGA 2.29 -0.49 -17.8% FINRA-ADF 10:52:38
1.07m BRCD 6.08 +0.01 +0.2% FINRA-ADF 10:58:04 ANUR
1.01m RSX 29.48 +0.06 +0.2% FINRA-ADF 11:11:18 – Average Price Trade
1.00m SPY 145.17 -0.07 -0.1% FINRA-ADF 14:57:16 – Average Price Trade
1.00m SIRI 2.71 +0.01 +0.6% FINRA-ADF 13:02:31

Tags: market update, Sentiment

Category: Market Update