The CBOE composite put/call ratio closed at 0.64, its second lowest reading of the year. The VIX closed near 12, its lowest close since mid-January. And of course, the S&P 500 and the DJIA closed at new all-time highs.
1. VIX – Four way trade, with the June 20 calls, Jul 20 calls, Aug 20 calls and Sept 20 calls all trading 150k midday. Looks like a trader rolling the June and Aug 20 calls out to the Jul and Sept 20 calls. Outside of that four way trade, the June 15 calls and the May 14 calls both traded over 70k as well. The May VIX future closed at 13.50, and the June VIX future closed at 14.80.
2. MSFT – Most of the call volume was due to the ex-dividend. But a buyer of 20k of the July 34 puts for 0.08 to open. MSFT is up 7% so far in 2014, and its 10 year high from early April was $41.66.
3. S – The headlines surrounding a potential bid by Sprint to buy T-Mobile continued on Monday, with T-Mobile seeking a $1 billion breakup fee from Sprint in a potential deal. A trader rolled out May 8 calls to August, selling 46k of the May 8 calls at 0.97 to close to buy 46k of the Aug 8 calls for 1.44 to open.
4. FCX – The May17th 35 calls traded over 16k at an average price of 0.276 over the course of the day. FCX traded above $35 yesterday for the first time since mid-January. Copper hit its highest level in 2 months yesterday.
5. NAT – The May17th 8 calls traded nearly 20k at 0.60 in the afternoon. NAT is a Norwegian shipping company worth about $770 million in market cap terms, and the options rarely trade.