Market Overview
Wall Street was lower on Wednesday(Aug.16) after the release of the Federal Reserve's minutes.
The S&P 500 was down 0.76%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.15% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.52%.
Regarding the options market, a total volume of 41,420,401 contracts was traded, up 12.6% from the previous trading day.
Top 10 Option Volumes
Top 10: SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, Invesco QQQ Trust, Tesla Motors, iShares Russell 2000 ETF, NVIDIA Corp, AMC Entertainment, Apple, Johnson & Johnson, iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF
Options related to equity index ETFs are popular with investors, with 9.36 million SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and 4.23 million Invesco QQQ Trust options contracts trading on Wednesday(Aug.16).
Target rose 2.96% on Wednesday as it reported second-quarter adjusted earnings that beat estimates but lowered its fiscal-year forecast. It now expects adjusted earnings of $7 to $8 a share vs. previous guidance of $7.75 to $8.75.
There were 403K Target option contracts traded on Wednesday, surging over 80% from the previous trading day. Call options account for 52% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $130 strike put option expiring August 18, with 15,431 contracts trading. $TGT 20230818 130.0 PUT$
Most Active Trading Equities Options
Special %Calls >70%: Amgen; Palantir Technologies Inc.;
Special %Puts >70%: Nikola Corporation; Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras;
Unusual Options Activity
Amgen slid 0.37% on Wednesday as it will trade ex-dividend on Thursday(Aug.17) for its respective upcoming dividends, it will pay its quarterly dividend of $2.13 on Sept.8.
There were 237.2K Amgen option contracts traded on Wednesday, surging over 1400% from the previous trading day. Call options account for 97.66% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $260 strike call option expiring August 18, with 6,575 contracts trading.$AMGN 20230818 260.0 CALL$
JD.com fell 3.03% on Wednesday though it reported better-than-expected second-quarter results, its Q2 net revenue reached 287.93 billion yuan, indicating a growth of 7.6% compared to the same period last year, and adjusted earnings per American depositary receipt (ADR) came in at 5.39 yuan.
There were 117.8K JD.com option contracts traded on Wednesday, surging nearly 40% from the previous trading day. Put options account for 58% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $32.5 strike put option expiring September 15, with 6,393 contracts trading.$JD 20230915 32.5 PUT$
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: Apple; International Flavors & Fragrances; Chevron; Pfizer; United Parcel Service Inc; Discover; Newmont Mining; Meta Platforms, Inc.; Boston Scientific; Albemarle
Top 10 bearish stocks: Tesla Motors; Microsoft; Citigroup; AT&T Inc; PayPal; Advanced Micro Devices; Bank of America; Phillips 66; NVIDIA Corp; Ford
Based on option delta volume, traders sold a net equivalent of -4,825,884 shares of Tesla Motors stock. The largest bullish delta came from selling puts.
The largest delta volume came from the 18-Aug-23 230 Call, with traders getting short 3,247,621 deltas on the single option contract. $TSLA 20230818 230.0 CALL$
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