U.S. stocks ended the month with their fourth straight daily decline on Wednesday, cementing the weakest August performance in seven years as worries about aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve persist.
Options Broad View
A total volume of 34,282,937 contracts are traded on Wednesday, up a small 0.9% from the previous day. Call options account for 49% of total options trades.
There are 7.70 million SPDR S&P500 ETF Trust options traded on Wednesday. Call options account for 42% in overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $397 strike put option expiring August 31, with 300,535 contracts trading on Wednesday.
Top 10 Option Volumes
Top 10: SPY, QQQ, TSLA, AAPL, NVDA, AMZN, BBBY, SNAP, META, IWM
Options related to equity index ETFs are still top choices for investors, with 2.57 million Invest QQQ Trust ETF options contracts trading on Wednesday. Total trading volume for SPY and QQQ increase 5% and decrease 6%, respectively, from the previous day.
Chip designer Nvidia Corp said on Wednesday that U.S. officials told it to stop exporting two top computing chips for artificial intelligence work to China, a move that could cripple Chinese firms' ability to carry out advanced work like image recognition and hamper Nvidia's business in China.
Nvidia shares fell 6.6% after hours. The company said the ban, which affects its A100 and H100 chips designed to speed up machine learning tasks, could interfere with completion of developing the H100, the flagship chip Nvidia announced this year.
There are 740.4K Nvidia option contracts traded on Wednesday. Put options account for 61% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $150 strike put option expiring September 2, with 65,174 contracts trading on Wednesday.
The social media sector received a boost from a restructuring program at industry heavyweight Snap (SNAP). Facebook parent Meta Platforms rose 3.7% on Wednesday.
There are 634.7K Meta Platforms option contracts traded onWednesday. Put options account for 60% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $170 strike call option expiring September 2, with 40,592 contracts trading on Wednesday.
Regarding Alibaba, a total volume of 398.1K option contracts is traded on Wednesday. Put options account for 62% of overall option trade. Particularly high volume was seen for the $100 strike call option expiring September 2, with 22,736 contracts trading on Wednesday.
Alibaba also saw several put option orders with an amount of more than US $100 million.
Unusual Options Activity
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc on Wednesday said it inked deals for more than $500 million in new financing and that it would close 150 stores, cut jobs and overhaul its merchandising strategy in an attempt to turn around its money-losing business.
Investors, however, remain concerned that the retailer's plan, announced in a strategic update, will do little to improve Bed Bath & Beyond's business as shares fell as much as 21.3%. The retailer also announced a plan to raise money by issuing new shares.
There are 715K Bed Bath & Beyond option contracts traded on Wednesday. Call options account for 65% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $10 strike call option expiring September 2, with 26,979 contracts trading on Wednesday.
Snap Inc said on Wednesday it will lay off 20% of all staff and shut down projects, including mobile games and novelties like a flying drone camera, as high inflation and a deteriorating economy ravage the advertising industry.
The cuts will help the company save an estimated $500 million in costs annually, Snap said. Snap shares rose 8.7% on Wednesday.
There are 663.2K Snap option contracts traded on Wednesday. Call options account for 43% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $11.5 strike call option expiring September 2, with 42,371 contracts trading on Wednesday.
TOP Bullish & Bearish Single Stocks
This report shows stocks with the highest volume of bullish and bearish activity by option delta volume, which converts option volume to an equivalent stock volume (bought or sold).
If we take the total positive option delta volume and subtract the total negative option delta volume, we will get the net imbalance. If the net imbalance is positive there is more bullish pressure. If the net is negative there is more bearish pressure.
Top 10 bullish stocks: BABA, META, SQ, SPY, SNAP, IWM, ZM, AMZN, Z, NFLX, SQ
Alibaba had the highest bullish wagers, with traders getting long 5M deltas on balance. Meta Platform and SPY also saw bullish option activities.
iShares Russell 2000 ETF options trading was also active on Wednesday. There are 606K option contracts traded on Wednesday. Put options account for 73% of overall option trades.
Top 10 bearish stocks: CLAR, APPL, GOOG, SOFI, VIXY, UUP, PARA, F, XLU, XLF
Clarus had the highest bearish wagers on Wednesday. Clarus saw options trading volume of 181K contracts on Wednesday, call options account for 83%.
Clarus stock has fallen for five days in a row, and this week's decline is nearly 32%.
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