Heavy Volume in AXP Options Looks Bullish, but Not So in QCOM

The good news in today’s
unemployment report was that there are more jobs being created, but the bad news
was that more people are out of work, with more to follow. According to Business
Week, GE may be axing up to 75,000 jobs, primarily at Honeywell. That evidence
of further stagnation in the economy helped put the bears back in the driver’s
seat and has taken both Dow and Nasdaq lower.

   

For anyone out there still in our Qualcomm
(
QCOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

bull-call spread, you might want to pay attention to the action in the calls
today. 9,000 FEB 80s have traded thus far (12:00 pm CST) and the majority have
been hitting the market maker’s bids rather than paying the offer. QCOM has
been one of the standouts today, so the action could signal institutional profit
taking more than positioning for a downturn.

   

Call


 Call

Put


 $W


 $W


Symbol

Volume

Volume

Call
Vol

Put
Vol

QCOM

      
20,321

        
4,037

    
153,058

      
19,511

     


Another stock with bullish option trading activity is American
Express

(
AXP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
. We’re tracking 14,000 FEB 50 calls changing
hands in AXP and although they are cheap calls ($1.40) the action is heavy
enough to make us stand up and take notice. There has been a steady stream of
200, 500 and 1000 lot orders, a clear sign of institutional interest. Given that
AXP is also up on a down trading session, we’d be looking for some bullish
news next week for AXP.