Friday’s Options Alerts
Despite some
struggles, the Dow and S&P continued their way higher after yesterday’s
bounce and this morning’s positive economic reports. However
the Nasdaq fell back into the red after Salomon Smith Barney cut estimates for
several chip companies and after warnings from the networking sector surfaced.
At the
close, the Dow
(
$INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 155.30 points or 1.98%. The S&P
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained
15.29 points or 1.82%. And after besting the Dow and S&P for the past two
day, the Nasdaq
(
$COMPX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) slipped just 0.68 points or 0.05%.
Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
up 6.21% were the best performing sector today as the index is starting to crawl
back from all-time lows and ignoring Smith Barney’s earnings cuts on the sector.
Other notable performers were oil service issues
(
$OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 5.45%, and
oil issues
(
$XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 3.96%. Weakest sectors today included networking
(
$NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down 4.66% after warnings from Nortel Network
(
NT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
Redback Networks
(
RBAK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
Gold issues
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) also fell 4.35% after
Barrick Gold
(
ABX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) cut its 2002 projections. On the economic front,
weekly initial claims dropped by 24,000 to a five week low of 406,000. The
four-week moving average also fell by 1,000 to 419,000. This was the first decline
in the moving average in seven weeks. Also durable goods for August fell 0.6%,
expectations were calling for a 2.7% drop. The broader market bounce could
continue as we head into the end of the month/quarter mark up period.
Volatility continued its sell-off today. The VIX
(
$VIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) opened on its highs and closed
near the lows of the day. This shift in intraday sentiment
shows a drop in fear. No CVRs were triggered today. The VXN
(
$VXN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) opened
near its lows and closed near near thehighs of the day. This shift
in intraday sentiment shows a rise in fear. Once again, the
vixen didn’t trigger any signals.
Points of Significance:
| Volatility Index |
Close | Net Change |
Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average |
Significance |
| VIX | 40.12 |
DOWN 2.29 |
NONE |
5.80% Below |
Not At Extreme |
| VXN | 59.09 |
UP 2.40 |
NONE |
0.001% Above |
Not At Extreme |
Abnormal Options Volume With Price Movement
—
Abnormal options volume (calls and puts) with stock price movement
| Name | Symbol | Net % Change |
Volume | Avg. Volume |
| 4 Kids Entertainment |
KDE |
+ 10.77 |
1718 |
274 |
| Marvell Technology |
MRVL |
– 10.61 |
4140 |
1876 |
| Barrick Gold |
ABX |
– 10.52 |
8383 |
2672 |
| Wendy’s International |
WEN |
+ 5.89 |
1431 |
303 |
| Nabors |
NBR |
+ 5.21 |
3129 |
555 |
| H&R Block |
HRB |
– 5.01 |
18970 |
3663 |
Stocks With Biggest Spikes in Implied
Volatility — Stocks with biggest increases or decreases in implied
volatility compared to previous day
Spike Up
| Name | Symbol | IV | Previous IV |
High IV |
Low IV |
|
National Data Corp.
|
NDC |
61.4 |
50.3 |
54.3 |
32.2 |
| H&R Block |
HRB |
69.3 |
57.4 |
50.6 |
31.4 |
| Unilab Corp. |
ULAB |
62.8 |
54.3 |
76.5 |
29.1 |
| Qlogic |
QLGC |
96 |
83.1 |
95 |
66.6 |
| Cendant |
CD |
89.4 |
78 |
86 |
33.5 |
| Hyperion Solutions |
HYSL |
84.6 |
75.8 |
70.3 |
45.3 |
Spike Down
| Name | Symbol | IV | Previous IV |
High IV |
Low IV |
| Safeway |
SWY |
44.3 |
57.9 |
46.5 |
22 |
| Duke Energy |
DUK |
56.5 |
69.1 |
80 |
25.3 |
| Fortune Brands |
FO |
30.5 |
35.5 |
35.8 |
18.5 |
| Bed Bath & Beyond |
BBBY |
49.6 |
57.3 |
59.8 |
32.5 |
| Papa Johns |
PZZA |
33.7 |
38.8 |
44.5 |
29.2 |
| Medimmune |
MEDI |
75.2 |
85.9 |
108.8 |
54.6 |
Please use stops on every trade!