Small Cap Stocks
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) $2.32 +1.31%
AMD is up 4 cents to $2.33 and call options on the chipmaker are busy for a third time this week, but in contrast to Monday and Tuesday, it appears that premium sellers are dominating the action Thursday. The activity earlier this week created about 48,000 contracts in new open interest in call options on [...]
Century Aluminum Co (CENX) $8.10 +2.21%
Century Aluminum (CENX) adds 18 cents to $8.1 and has rallied nearly 18 percent in less than three weeks. One player in the options market seems to expect the gains to hold over the next 16 days and sold a 2500-lot of Dec 8 puts on the stock at 26 cents on ISE. Data from [...]
Exelixis Inc (EXEL) $4.40 -3.08%
Exelixis (EXEL) drops 20 cents to $4.34 and 8750 Feb 6 calls are bought on the San Francisco biotech for 10 cents per contract. It might close positions opened in mid-Sept when the same contract saw opening activity after trading on the 55 and 60 cent bid price. Shares are down 16.2 percent since that [...]
Zynga Inc (ZNGA) $2.33 +3.51%
Zinger of a trade in Zynga as a sweep buyer paid 18cents for 12874 Jan 2.5 calls a minute ago, lifting offers on six exchanges at the same moment. Current call volume near 20K is 3x normal for this time of day and is nearly 20x the put volume. Shares are up a few cents [...]
Stone Energy (SGY) $20.81 +6.07%
Stone Energy (SGY) adds $1.08 to $20.70 and is rallying on news Freeport McMoran (FCX) is interested in McMoran (MMR). SGY is apparently in the same space as MMR. 1,280 Jan 21 calls traded in SGY against 29 in open interest. The contract is being bought-to-open for $1.30 and $1.35 and today’s volume in the [...]
Alpha Natural Resources Inc (ANR) $7.54 +3.95%
Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) is up 34 cents to $7.59 in active trading of 2.3 million shares. Options volume on the coal producer is about 7,900 calls and 300 puts. The most actives are Jan 9, Weekly 8, Dec 8, and Weekly 7 calls. No news on the ticker. Market Vectors Coal Fund (KOL) is [...]
Mechel Open Joint Stock Company (MTL) $6.14 +1.15%
Mechel (MTL) adds 7 cents to $6.14 and options volume on the Russian steel company is 10X the daily average, being driven by a second day of interest in Jan14 $10 calls on the stock. Yetersday’s flow created 4,626 in open interest. At 19,308, the contract is by far the largest block of OI in [...]
Pandora Media Inc (P) $9.44 +5.36%
Pandora (P) adds 43 cents to $9.39 in active trading of 6.7 million shares on optimism ahead of the company’s earnings report. Pandora reports after the closing bell today. In options action, volume is running 5X the daily average. 17,000 calls and 19,000 puts so far. The top trade is a Dec 8 – 9 [...]
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) $2.31 -2.12%
AMD gives up a nickel to $2.31 and call options on the chipmaker are busy for a second day. Open interest in AMD call options increased by 24,000 after players took new positions in Apr 2.5 and 3.5s yesterday (see 12/3 color). Another 30,000 calls and 2,000 puts traded in AMD today and the thirteen [...]
DeVry Inc (DV) $25.38 -2.65%
Devry (DV) drops 63 cents to $25.44 and options flow on the for-profit education company is centered on Feb 30 puts. A 1600-lot traded for $5.30 per contract just two minutes into trading this morning and then another 294-lot for $5.90 about an hour and a half later. Both traded on ISE and are opening [...]
