STOCKS NEWS US-Traders circle calls on gold ETF, and miners

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U.S. stock market report 1220 ET 20May2011 Traders circle calls on gold ETF, miners

Call volume in several gold-related stocks and an exchange-traded fund popped up on Friday as the metal rose.

Near midday, Yamana Gold Inc's option turnover was more than double with about 29,000 calls and 1,643 puts traded. The July $14 and $15 calls were bought 6,500 times each against the sale of October $13 and $14 calls for a net
94
cent credit, said Trade Alert president Henry Schwartz. Its shares slipped 10 cents to $12.18. Gold Fields Ltd's volume was 12.2 times greater than typical levels and included 25,000 calls and only 332 puts. The stock gained 1.66 percent to $15.83.

Schwartz noted that paper sold the July $17-$20 GFI call spread which traded 20,000 times for 1.45, and that the $17 strikes were opening positions. In the SPDR Gold Trust, the May $146 and $147 calls are active, with an investor scooping up a few thousand May $147 calls for 4 and 5 cents each when the fund was near its lows, he said. The fund was up 1.22 percent to $147.44. Gold rose on Friday, helped by a soft dollar. For details, see .

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1058 ET 20May2011 National Bank of Greece put traders look for more weakness

Option volume is heavy on the National Bank of Greece and was accompanied by a drop of its U.S.-listed shares. The stock fell 1.47 percent to $1.34 early on Friday. U.S. stocks fell as the euro zone's debt problems revived worries about the broader impact on the market.

The bank's option turnover is 7.1 times greater than average daily levels with about 15,000 puts and only 228 calls traded in the morning session, according to Trade Alert.

The volume is being driven by traders apparently rolling their soon-to-expire May positions to June and other months.

May options expire after the close. One investor sold 2,000 May $1.74 puts at 38 cents and 5,000 May $1.5 puts at $1.50 to buy 8,000 June $1.5 puts at 26 cents per contract, said WhatsTrading.com options strategist Frederic Ruffy. Some of the May puts were opened on May 6 when open interest in NBG puts increased to 53,400 from 43,400 contracts. 'Today's roll might reflect expectations for additional weakness in shares of the Greek bank over the next four weeks,' Ruffy said.

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1017 ET 20May2011
Wall St down on euro zone worries, technicals

U.S. stocks fell on Friday as the euro zone's debt problems revived worries about the broader impact and the S&P 500 was below a key technical level.

Shares in clothing retailer Gap Inc fell 16 percent to $19.60 after it slashed its full-year profit outlook late on Thursday.

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0948 ET 20May2011 May options expiration is seen as tame event

The expiration of May options appears to be a non-event as far as affecting the stock market, according to Larry McMillan, president of McMillan Analysis Corp.

There is roughly an equal balance between expiring in-the-money call open interest and in-the-money put open interest on the Standard & Poor's 100 index .

'Thus, we don't expect large buy or sell programs, due to option expiration today,' he wrote in a report.

McMillan looks at OEX options because they are American-style, meaning they can be exercised any time up until expiration. The OEX is cash-based, and no futures or meaningful exchange-traded funds are traded on that index. Thus, McMillan views the option activity as more 'pure' than the S&P 500 index , where the SPDR S&P 500 Trust, S&P futures and e-mini S&P futures can distort the picture. May options on stocks and some indexes expire after the market close.

The OEX slipped 0.27 percent to 594.58 early on Friday.

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