Stock market averages are holding gains heading into the final two hours of trading Thursday. For the third time this week (the exception was Wednesday), stocks rallied in the opening minutes and then traded sideways in a range throughout the remainder of the session. Today’s strength is being attributed to Bernanke’s soothing words about monetary policy yesterday afternoon. However, the tone also has a wait-and-see feel ahead of earnings. JPM and WFC report tomorrow morning and the floodgates on Q2 earnings begin to open wide the middle of next week. Nevertheless, the Dow is up 148 points and the NASDAQ rallied 50. VIX is off .53 to 13.68 and overall options volumes are running at their best levels so far this week. 6.9 million calls and 6.2 million puts so far.
Notable Flow
GRPN – Bearish activity detected in Groupon Inc with 53436 puts trading, or 5x the recent avg daily put volume in the name. Shares near $8.65 (-0.15) with ATMIV lifting by 4.24 point and 88% of todays put premium trading offer side. (Trade Alert LLC) 13:31
EXPE – Bearish activity detected in Expedia Inc with 11298 puts trading, or 9x the recent avg daily put volume in the name. Shares near $63 (-0.22) with ATMIV lifting by 1.42 point and 88% of todays put premium trading offer side. (Trade Alert LLC) 13:51
TSRX – Bullish flow detected in Trius Therapeutics Inc with 2040 calls trading, or 3x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares near $9.67 (0.69) with ATMIV lifting by 1.96 point and 50% of todays call premium trading offer side. (Trade Alert LLC) 12:21
High options volume is being seen in AMD, GRPN, VOD, RSH, CELG, WAG, PBI, EBAY, EQIX, NRG
Daily Open Interest Update
Wednesday’s total option volume of 14.5 million contracts resulted in net open interest growth of 2.42 million calls and 2.34 million puts. Bank of America Corporation (BAC), Micron Technology Inc (MU), Intel Corporation (INTC) and Qualcomm Inc (QCOM) saw the greatest growth. Top five new positions opened include 37k Bank of America Corporation (BAC) Jan-14 12 calls, 34k Bank of America Corporation (BAC) Feb-14 15 calls, 17k Micron Technology Inc (MU) Oct-13 15 calls, 17k Intel Corporation (INTC) Jul-13 23 puts and 16k Micron Technology Inc (MU) Oct-13 14 calls. (Auto Content (Trade Alert LLC))
Movers
Symbol Price Change %Change StdDevs
MACK 5.31 -1.68 -24.0% 5.98
RMTI 4.53 +0.77 +20.5% 5.75
BPI 15.06 +2.45 +19.4% 11.80
RSH 2.30 -0.53 -18.7% 6.21
NUGT 5.80 +0.86 +17.4% 1.70
DUST 112.74 -23.26 -17.1% 1.73
ALNY 43.75 +6.15 +16.4% 5.47
GTXI 5.90 +0.70 +13.5% 1.91
EDZ 56.38 -8.04 -12.5% 2.38
RUSL 22.53 +2.43 +12.1% 2.41
Shakers (Implied volatility Movers)
Symbol IV[30d] IVChg IVChg% SkewAdjChg Price Change
BPI 47.0% -69.2 -59.5% -54.2 $15.06 +2.45
YUM 19.3% -8.1 -29.6% -8.2 $71.65 -0.71 Post-Earnings
BKLN 5.6% -2.3 -29.4% -1.9 $24.85 +0.09
JE 55.9% -23.2 -29.3% N/A $6.46 +0.20
PCLN 33.1% +6.3 +23.3% +6.3 $910.74 +18.42
TXI 48.0% -14.0 -22.6% -15.2 $63.35 -1.64 Post-Earnings
PBI 51.1% +9.2 +21.9% +8.4 $14.09 -0.20
ACHN 57.9% +9.5 +19.6% +4.0 $6.49 +0.09
MTU 51.6% -11.6 -18.3% -10.1 $6.60 +0.16
ALNY 55.4% -12.1 -17.9% -13.0 $43.77 +6.17
52-Week Highs
616 new highs: Too Many to List
52-week Lows
38 new lows: ALVR AMRN BIS CHGS DBLE DCTH DOG DXD FAZ GWAY JPNS LFL MIDZ MZZ PBF PSQ QID RWM SDOW SEF SGG SIJ SKF SOXS SPXS SPXU SQM SQQQ SRTY TWM TZA UPI UVXY VIIX VIV VIXY VXX XIDEQ
Top Equity Blocks
4.33m XLF 20.12 +0.12 +0.6% FINRA-ADF 13:40:53 – Derivatively Priced SECTORETFS
3.60m SPY 166.70 +1.82 +1.1% FINRA-ADF 11:31:04 – Derivatively Priced
3.05m ARMH 39.52 +1.23 +3.2% FINRA-ADF 12:38:54 – Burst
2.75m FNFG 9.90 -0.32 -3.1% FINRA-ADF 13:40:17
1.64m PACD 9.20 -0.25 -2.6% FINRA-ADF 12:49:17 – Burst
1.60m SIRI 3.63 +0.04 +1.1% FINRA-ADF 10:51:14
1.50m USO 37.43 -0.38 -1.0% FINRA-ADF 12:49:04 – Average Price Trade
1.50m USO 37.06 -0.37 -1.0% FINRA-ADF 12:48:09 – Average Price Trade
1.50m USO 37.07 -0.36 -1.0% FINRA-ADF 12:46:44 – Average Price Trade
1.50m USO 37.06 -0.37 -1.0% FINRA-ADF 12:46:19