Monday’s Options Alerts
Stocks squeezed out
another gain today on a day
filled with a mixed bag of earnings. Microsoft
(
MSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), PeopleSoft
(
PSFT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and Biogen
(
BGEN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported better-than-expected results and
delivered positive outlooks for their next quarter. However, Siebel Systems
(
SEBL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
Check Point Software
(
CHKP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and Ericsson
(
ERICY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) posted worse-than-expected results and had negative outlooks going forward.
At the
close, the Dow
(
$INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 47.36 points or 0.57%. The S&P
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained
5.18 points or 0.58% and, the Nasdaq
(
$COMPX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 15.47 points or
1.21%. This was the second week in a row that the averages finished in the
green. For the week, the Dow gained 472 points or 6%. The S&P gained 49
points or 5.86%, and the Nasdaq gained 77 points or 6.36%.
Best-performing
sectors today were retail
(
$RLX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 2.49%, computer technology
(
$XCI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
up 2.09%, telecoms
(
$XTC.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 1.56%, and healthcare providers
(
$RXH.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
up 1.34%. Worst-performing sectors were Internets
(
$GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down 1.79%,
gold
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down 1.47%, chemicals
(
$CEX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down 1.31%.
On the
economic front, August trade deficit jumped 9% and came in at $38.5 billion, or
much higher than estimates of $35.6 billion. Also the CPI for September rose by
an expected 0.2% and the core rate increased by 0.1% or less than the 0.2%
expected gain. We have come a long way since the bottom(?) on October 10, a
pullback or sideways action could be likely.
The VIX
(
$VIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) opened in the lower half of its range and closed
slightly under its low. This shift in intraday sentiment shows a drop in fear.
The VIX didn’t trigger any CVRs, but it is getting slightly stretched again. The VXN
(
$VXN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gapped up, opened near its highs, but closed near
the lows of the day. This shift
in intraday sentiment also shows a drop in fear.
Points of Significance:
| Volatility Index |
Close | Net Change |
Signals/Direction | % Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average |
Significance |
| VIX | 39.82 | DOWN 0.34 | NONE | 9.37% Below | Near Extreme |
| VXN | 55.33 | DOWN 0.89 | NONE |
6.31% Below | 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 |
| Cree Inc. |
CREE |
+ 14.80 | 4105 | 674 |
| Nucor Corp. | NUE |
+ 9.43 | 1632 | 275 |
| UT Starcom | UTSI |
– 8.24 | 6231 | 770 |
| Cabot Microelectronics |
CCMP |
+ 6.03 | 5848 | 1774 |
| New Century Financial | NCEN |
+ 4.20 | 2065 | 582 |
| Cerner | CERN |
+ 3.88 | 3664 | 205 |
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 |
|
ChoicePoint
|
CPS |
66.9 | 50.5 | 40.4 | 27.8 |
| Wisconsin Energy | WEC |
41.7 | 32.3 | 35.5 | 17.1 |
| Unilab | ULAB |
54.9 | 47 | 76.5 | 29.1 |
| Allied Capital | ALD |
64.7 | 56.6 | 84.2 | 29.1 |
| Yellow Corp. |
YELL |
106.3 | 94.7 | 88.1 | 41 |
| Premark Int’l | PMI |
55 | 49.2 | 56.5 | 24.8 |
Spike Down
| Name | Symbol | IV | Previous IV |
High IV |
Low IV |
|
Harman Int’l
|
HAR |
51.7 | 62 | 60.3 | 29.6 |
| Microsoft | MSFT |
46.3 | 55.3 | 59.5 | 63.3 |
| Allergan | AGN |
37.1 | 44.2 | 50.9 | 31.6 |
| National Instruments | NATI |
61.7 | 71.3 | 63.2 | 35.7 |
| Boyd Gaming | BYD |
63.3 | 71.2 | 69 | 45.1 |
| New Century Financial | NCEN |
74.1 | 84.6 | 95 | 59.3 |
Please use stops on every trade!