Options Spy: NKLA is up 60% and straddle strategies are the hot trades

U.S. stocks rose again Thursday as oil prices extended gains and the dollar tumbled after producer prices showed inflation continued to fall in June. The Wall Street Journal reporter Nick Timiraos, who is known as the Fed's mouthpiece, wrote that the US consumer price index (CPI) rose in June at a 26-month low, which increases the probability that the Federal Reserve will stop raising interest rates after an expected interest rate hike this month, that is, July may be the last interest rate hike this year.

It is worth noting that the Fed's "eagle King" and St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President Bullard announced that he would resign on August 14 and then go to Purdue University.

John Flood, a partner at Goldman Sachs, thinks the S&P could end the year at a new high. Flood said in a note to clients that a number of clients are now asking whether they should think the S&P 500 is on track to reach a new high by the end of the year, "and I agree." For that to happen, it will require a continuation of the rally that has been the most spectacular on Wall Street, and stocks will need both economic growth and corporate earnings to consistently beat expectations. The S&P hit an all-time high of 4,796.56 in January 2022.

Shares of electric vehicle startup $Nikola Corporation(NKLA)$ surged more than 60 percent on Thursday and were up 7 percent later in the session as the company received a large order for hydrogen-powered trucks. NKLA has announced that hydrogen producer BayoTech will purchase up to 50 Nikola Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles to transport hydrogen.

The most traded options trades are straddle portfolios:

$NKLA 20230818 2.0 PUT$ $NKLA 20230818 2.0 CALL$

Option buyer open position (Single leg)

Highlight order: $NVDA 20230915 370.0 CALL$ $PDD 20230721 81.0 CALL$

Option seller open position (Single leg)

Highlight order: $BABA 20231020 105.0 PUT$ $NKLA 20230728 1.5 PUT$ $JPM 20230728 157.5 CALL$

Options portfolio open position