No Rate Cut, But Lots Of The Usual From The Maestro!
Well now we know what it
takes to knock the pins out from under the already weakened stock
market — just
let the Fed Chairman talk! Chairman Alan Greenspan’s Congressional testimony
was its usual Fed speak gibberish, but the members of the House seemed less in
awe of the Maestro than I’d seen in previous sessions. Good reason for that,
as the Fed has been woefully behind the curve in its actions, which have
contributed to the ongoing malaise in corporate America.
Perhaps the most damaging part of Mr. Greenspan’s testimony was his
continued references to moving rates lower at Fed meetings, rather than
between meetings. That put the bulls on notice that the much hoped for cut(s)
would not likely come ahead of the March 20 meeting.
On the option floors, Bear Stearns has had a VERY LARGE customer slamming out
35,000 April 17 1/2 puts in Sun Microsystems
(
SUNW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Those sales obviously meant the seller was drawing a line in the
sand as far as SUNW’s downside. Not surprisingly, the market started a
recovery from its lows just after those put sales! Just shrewd timing I’m
sure!
I highlighted the action in Adobe Systems Inc.
(
ADBE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), as suddenly, I’m seeing money flow into the calls of the
software maker. The big action was 1500 ADBE January 2002 27 1/2 calls bought
for $9. That’s some serious coin they put out, so you may want to put this
one on your early warning screens for a rebound!
|
|
Call
|
Put
|
$W
|
$W
|
|
Symbol
|
Volume
|
Volume
|
Call
|
Put
|
|
SUNW
|
14,122
|
34,514
|
25,375
|
62,318
|
|
JDSU
|
21,254
|
12,751
|
51,414
|
151,627
|
|
JNPR
|
21,650
|
10,838
|
51,837
|
209,501
|
|
AMAT
|
3,723
|
4,861
|
13,559
|
21,422
|
|
AMCC
|
3,610
|
5,425
|
10,781
|
37,636
|
|
ADBE
|
2,962
|
1,334
|
20,765
|
6,388
|
(1010WallStreet.com
has licensed the use of Hamzei Analytics LLC proprietary options analytics)