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Real-time Equity news
U.S. stock market report
1646 ET 29Dec2009
Traders pick up Ford Motor put options
About 52,000 put options changed hands in Ford Motor Co, more than twice the number of its calls, Trade Alert data show. Ford shares slipped 9 cents to $10.11. Most of the action was concentrated in the February contract, where one investor bought 17,000 $7 put strikes at a 7-cent premium and 12,000 $8 puts at 12 cents apiece, said Frederic Ruffy, options strategist at WhatsTrading.com. The strikes had a combined turnover of 34,034 contracts, according to Reuters data.
The action stands in contrast to Monday, when shares hit a 52-week high of $10.37 and settled higher at $10.20. On that day, 62,000 calls and 19,000 puts traded. But open interest data suggest that less than 7,000 of Monday's calls were opening trades compared to an additional 8,652 put positions, Ruffy said. The put activity comes ahead of monthly auto sales due next Tuesday and the automaker's quarterly results expected in late January or early February.
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1512 ET 29Dec2009
Cephalon upside call options stir interest
Option traders exchanged about 11,000 call contracts in drugmaker Cephalon Inc, more than three times the average daily turnover compared to 1,129 puts by late afternoon, according to Trade Alert. The most active contracts were the May $75 call strikes, the January $65 and $70 call strikes as shares rose 1.9 percent to $62.26.
An investor paid $1.25 in premium for the May $75 calls, which traded 5,000 times vs. 105 contracts of open interest, said WhatsTrading.com option strategist Frederic Ruffy. A total of 5,460 contracts now traded in that strike price, according to Reuters data.
Open Interest across the entire option board was heavily skewed toward the upside with 116,000 calls vs. 55,000 puts, according to Trade Alert. The company said last week that U.S. health regulators delayed a decision on whether to approve Cephalon's sleep disorder drug Nuvigil to treat sleepiness caused by jet lag by three months. For details, see
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1445 ET 29Dec2009
Traders sell U.S. Steel puts as shares dip
Investors may be using a decline in U.S. Steel Corp as a chance to sell put options on the company, possibly to book some profits. U.S. Steel shares fell 2.62 percent to $55.01 late in the session. Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers Group, said at least 1,000 put options were earlier written at the $55 strike in the February contract. By taking in an average $3.80 premium today implies the investor is willing to pay an effective $51.20 for U.S. Steel shares, which might not happen if commodity prices continue the New Year on a firm footing, he said.
The investor could also be banking nice gains using options. On Monday, the stock hit a high of $58.19, while those puts traded 1,500 times at around a $3.40 premium, he said.
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1414 ET 29Dec2009
Bulls line up for Great Atlantic calls
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co Inc shares rose 5 cents to $11.84 late in the session. In the options market, buyers opened new positions in the January $12.50 calls with 2,736 contracts traded earlier vs. 2,088 in open interest, said WhatsTrading.com option strategist Frederic Ruffy. ISEE data on the International Securities Exchange confirm that customers are buying-to-open. It might be a play on earnings, which are expected around Jan. 12, he said. The stock has spent the past two months consolidating above $10, and now traders are looking for the heavily shorted supermarket chain to push toward $13, said optionMonster analyst David Russell in comments on the Web site. The firm's tracking program also detected heavy buying of the $12.50 calls for 50 cents. Great Atlantic in October posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss, hurt by pricing pressure, and said its Chief Executive Eric Claus resigned effective immediately, sending its shares down sharply. 'Short interest represented 33 percent of the float on Nov. 30, so forced buying may be contributing to the gains,' Russell said.
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1347 ET 29Dec2009
Calls stir in leveraged small cap ETF
In the Direxion Small Cap Bear 3X Fund, investors appear to be seeking leveraged protection against a decline in small cap companies according to the more than 30,000-lot call volume in the January $9 contract, wrote Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers Group. The inverse fund moves counter to the market, 'which means that while everyone else is in festive mood, this fund's price drops and since it's leveraged threefold, the moves can be pretty drastic,' he said in a note to clients. Call options are used to speculate on a decline in the value of small cap companies and if they do witness declines, the exchange-traded fund rises in value as do the call options. TZA shares rose 1 cent to $9.44 in afternoon trade while heavy volume underpins the $9 call strike where an average 85-cent premium is recorded. Open interest at the strike of 4,171 'suggests that this is the work of a bear looking for a New Year stock market swoon,' he said.
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1321 ET 29Dec2009
Silver ETF draws bearish put play
Shares in the iShares Silver Trust, meant to track the price of an ounce of silver, dipped 2.43 percent to $16.79 but are still above last week's $16.64 low. One investor appears to have extended protection against a fall in the price of silver by selling almost 40,000 January $15 SLV put options options and buying half as many in the February $15 strike and April $15 put strike, said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers Group. He surmised that the trader is spreading forward a protective position into the first and second quarters of 2010. 'We don't know whether the investor is already commodity bullish and just aims to protect unnecessary losses in the event of a sudden dollar upturn, or whether this is an outright bet that the commodity rally is overdone,' he said. If the latter is the case, the investor will benefit in the event of a 10.8 percent decline in the price of the ETF.
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1242 ET 29Dec2009
Option bulls bet on more gains in Ivanhoe
A number of option players appear to be banking that Ivanhoe Mines Ltd shares will surpass $15 by the second half of 2010. 'Ivanhoe Mines is at a two-year high, and the option action is looking for it to continue running higher,' said Chris McKhann, analyst at optionMonster in comments on the Web site. U.S.-listed shares of the Canadian miner rose 3 cents to $14.91, below its 52-week high of $15.19 set on Dec. 28, the highest level since November 2007, McKhann said. The average daily options volume has been fewer than 3,000 contracts in Ivanhoe and despite slow holiday trading, one block of 4,100 June $15 calls traded for $2.25 per contract against open interest of 274 contracts. In all, 5,134 contracts traded in the June $15 strike in the afternoon, according to Reuters data. 'This call buying is a bet that IVN will be above the all-time high for the stock set in July 2007,' McKhann said. 'This is one way that traders have been trying to leverage the higher price of gold and other precious metals.'
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1144 ET 29Dec2009
Nasdaq halts PHLX due to smoke on trading floor
Trading on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange was halted on Tuesday because of smoke on the trading floor, said the Nasdaq OMX, which owns the exchange.
Trading was halted at 11:05 a.m. (1605 GMT) There were no further details. For more please double click
Reuters Messaging: ellis.mnyandu.reuters.com@reuters.net
Keywords: MARKETS STOCKSNEWS
COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
Real-time Equity news
U.S. stock market report
1646 ET 29Dec2009
Traders pick up Ford Motor put options
About 52,000 put options changed hands in Ford Motor Co, more than twice the number of its calls, Trade Alert data show. Ford shares slipped 9 cents to $10.11. Most of the action was concentrated in the February contract, where one investor bought 17,000 $7 put strikes at a 7-cent premium and 12,000 $8 puts at 12 cents apiece, said Frederic Ruffy, options strategist at WhatsTrading.com. The strikes had a combined turnover of 34,034 contracts, according to Reuters data.
The action stands in contrast to Monday, when shares hit a 52-week high of $10.37 and settled higher at $10.20. On that day, 62,000 calls and 19,000 puts traded. But open interest data suggest that less than 7,000 of Monday's calls were opening trades compared to an additional 8,652 put positions, Ruffy said. The put activity comes ahead of monthly auto sales due next Tuesday and the automaker's quarterly results expected in late January or early February.
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1512 ET 29Dec2009
Cephalon upside call options stir interest
Option traders exchanged about 11,000 call contracts in drugmaker Cephalon Inc, more than three times the average daily turnover compared to 1,129 puts by late afternoon, according to Trade Alert. The most active contracts were the May $75 call strikes, the January $65 and $70 call strikes as shares rose 1.9 percent to $62.26.
An investor paid $1.25 in premium for the May $75 calls, which traded 5,000 times vs. 105 contracts of open interest, said WhatsTrading.com option strategist Frederic Ruffy. A total of 5,460 contracts now traded in that strike price, according to Reuters data.
Open Interest across the entire option board was heavily skewed toward the upside with 116,000 calls vs. 55,000 puts, according to Trade Alert. The company said last week that U.S. health regulators delayed a decision on whether to approve Cephalon's sleep disorder drug Nuvigil to treat sleepiness caused by jet lag by three months. For details, see
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1445 ET 29Dec2009
Traders sell U.S. Steel puts as shares dip
Investors may be using a decline in U.S. Steel Corp as a chance to sell put options on the company, possibly to book some profits. U.S. Steel shares fell 2.62 percent to $55.01 late in the session. Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers Group, said at least 1,000 put options were earlier written at the $55 strike in the February contract. By taking in an average $3.80 premium today implies the investor is willing to pay an effective $51.20 for U.S. Steel shares, which might not happen if commodity prices continue the New Year on a firm footing, he said.
The investor could also be banking nice gains using options. On Monday, the stock hit a high of $58.19, while those puts traded 1,500 times at around a $3.40 premium, he said.
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1414 ET 29Dec2009
Bulls line up for Great Atlantic calls
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co Inc shares rose 5 cents to $11.84 late in the session. In the options market, buyers opened new positions in the January $12.50 calls with 2,736 contracts traded earlier vs. 2,088 in open interest, said WhatsTrading.com option strategist Frederic Ruffy. ISEE data on the International Securities Exchange confirm that customers are buying-to-open. It might be a play on earnings, which are expected around Jan. 12, he said. The stock has spent the past two months consolidating above $10, and now traders are looking for the heavily shorted supermarket chain to push toward $13, said optionMonster analyst David Russell in comments on the Web site. The firm's tracking program also detected heavy buying of the $12.50 calls for 50 cents. Great Atlantic in October posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss, hurt by pricing pressure, and said its Chief Executive Eric Claus resigned effective immediately, sending its shares down sharply. 'Short interest represented 33 percent of the float on Nov. 30, so forced buying may be contributing to the gains,' Russell said.
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1347 ET 29Dec2009
Calls stir in leveraged small cap ETF
In the Direxion Small Cap Bear 3X Fund, investors appear to be seeking leveraged protection against a decline in small cap companies according to the more than 30,000-lot call volume in the January $9 contract, wrote Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers Group. The inverse fund moves counter to the market, 'which means that while everyone else is in festive mood, this fund's price drops and since it's leveraged threefold, the moves can be pretty drastic,' he said in a note to clients. Call options are used to speculate on a decline in the value of small cap companies and if they do witness declines, the exchange-traded fund rises in value as do the call options. TZA shares rose 1 cent to $9.44 in afternoon trade while heavy volume underpins the $9 call strike where an average 85-cent premium is recorded. Open interest at the strike of 4,171 'suggests that this is the work of a bear looking for a New Year stock market swoon,' he said.
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1321 ET 29Dec2009
Silver ETF draws bearish put play
Shares in the iShares Silver Trust, meant to track the price of an ounce of silver, dipped 2.43 percent to $16.79 but are still above last week's $16.64 low. One investor appears to have extended protection against a fall in the price of silver by selling almost 40,000 January $15 SLV put options options and buying half as many in the February $15 strike and April $15 put strike, said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers Group. He surmised that the trader is spreading forward a protective position into the first and second quarters of 2010. 'We don't know whether the investor is already commodity bullish and just aims to protect unnecessary losses in the event of a sudden dollar upturn, or whether this is an outright bet that the commodity rally is overdone,' he said. If the latter is the case, the investor will benefit in the event of a 10.8 percent decline in the price of the ETF.
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1242 ET 29Dec2009
Option bulls bet on more gains in Ivanhoe
A number of option players appear to be banking that Ivanhoe Mines Ltd shares will surpass $15 by the second half of 2010. 'Ivanhoe Mines is at a two-year high, and the option action is looking for it to continue running higher,' said Chris McKhann, analyst at optionMonster in comments on the Web site. U.S.-listed shares of the Canadian miner rose 3 cents to $14.91, below its 52-week high of $15.19 set on Dec. 28, the highest level since November 2007, McKhann said. The average daily options volume has been fewer than 3,000 contracts in Ivanhoe and despite slow holiday trading, one block of 4,100 June $15 calls traded for $2.25 per contract against open interest of 274 contracts. In all, 5,134 contracts traded in the June $15 strike in the afternoon, according to Reuters data. 'This call buying is a bet that IVN will be above the all-time high for the stock set in July 2007,' McKhann said. 'This is one way that traders have been trying to leverage the higher price of gold and other precious metals.'
Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net
1144 ET 29Dec2009
Nasdaq halts PHLX due to smoke on trading floor
Trading on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange was halted on Tuesday because of smoke on the trading floor, said the Nasdaq OMX, which owns the exchange.
Trading was halted at 11:05 a.m. (1605 GMT) There were no further details. For more please double click
Reuters Messaging: ellis.mnyandu.reuters.com@reuters.net
Keywords: MARKETS STOCKSNEWS
COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.