Thursday’s Options Alerts
After the huge run
up of the last four sessions, stocks finally pulled
back today. While yesterday’s jump was inspired by positive
earnings news from a number of blue-chip companies, today’s decline was inspired
by negative earnings and warnings from the likes of Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Boeing
(
BA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
Motorola
(
MOT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), Capital One
(
COF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and Coca-Cola
(
KO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
The
fact that the Dow ran up over 1,000 points in the last four days also
suggested that a pullback was needed. At the
close, the Dow
(
$INDU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gave up 219.65 points or 2.66%. The S&P
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell
21.31 points or 2.41% and, the Nasdaq
(
$COMPX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 50 points or 3.90%.
Semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down 8.82%, computer technology
(
$XCI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
down 7.16%, netwokers
(
$NWX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) down 6.70% were the biggest losing sectors
of the day on the heels of the Intel and Motorola news. Meanwhile insurance
(
$IUX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
up 5.66%, Internets
(
$GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 5.16%, and banks
(
$BIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) up 5.06
continued to run.
There will be lots of economic news on tap for tomorrow: September building permits, September housing starts, initial
jobless claims, September capacity utilization, and September industrial
production. It could be a volatile day.
The VIX
(
$VIX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gapped up, opened near its lows, and closed near the
highs of the day. This shift in intraday sentiment shows a rise in fear. We have a CVR
2 sell for today. The VXN
(
$VXN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) also
gapped up, opened near its highs, but closed near
the lows of the day. This shift
in intraday sentiment shows a drop in fear.
Points of Significance:
Volatility Index |
Close |
Net Change |
Signals/Direction |
% Above/Below 10 Day Moving Average |
Significance |
VIX |
41.97 | UP 2.23 | CVR 2 SELL |
6.88% Below | Not At Extreme |
VXN |
56.87 | UP 0.50 | CVR 2 SELL |
4.83% 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 |
| Best Buy |
BBY |
– 11.15 | 14454 | 3402 |
| Coca-Cola | KO |
– 10.06 | 14588 | 2967 |
| Mercury Interactive | MERQ |
– 5.78 | 4437 | 1874 |
| A.G. Edwards |
AGE |
– 3.12 | 1098 | 347 |
| Kraft Foods | KFT |
– 3.26 | 3667 | 948 |
| St. Jude Medical |
STJ |
– 3.72 | 3356 | 446 |
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 |
|
Harris
|
HRS |
59.8 | 44.2 | 52.3 | 37.6 |
| Yellow Corp. | YELL |
88 | 65.7 | 88.1 | 41 |
| Nike | NKE |
43.6 | 33.5 | 54.5 | 28.9 |
| Plantronics | PLT |
67.8 | 52.6 | 57.9 | 36.9 |
| Meredith Corp. |
MDP |
36.1 | 28.5 | 35.2 | 22.9 |
| Greater Bay Bancorp | GBBK |
69.1 | 56 | 69.7 | 31.7 |
Spike Down
Name |
Symbol |
IV |
Previous IV |
High IV |
Low IV |
|
Golden State Bancorp
|
GSB |
12.2 | 28.5 | 35.1 | 10.3 |
| Citigroup | C |
46.7 | 59.6 | 65 | 27.9 |
| General Motors | GM |
66 | 81.7 | 76.5 | 27.4 |
| Parker Hannifin | PH |
42.3 | 51.4 | 47.6 | 27.4 |
| Hilton Hotels | HLT |
58.4 | 69.1 | 68.1 | 32.7 |
| Federal National Mortgage | FNM |
39.3 | 48.5 | 52.1 | 19.7 |
Please use stops on every trade!