Options volumes were the lightest they have been in the past week, though put volumes continued to dominate, as the CBOE put/call ratio closed above 1.10 for the 4th straight session (had only been above 1.10 on 5 instances in the past year before last week).
1. S – Sprint closed at a 52 week low on big volume after announcing a withdrawal of the bid for T-Mobile. TMUS is clearly in the driver’s seat from a business standpoint (5 straight quarters of 1 million+ net subscriber additions), while Sprint is now left to its own struggles. Aggressive buyer of the Sept 6 puts in the morning, which traded over 40k at an average price of 0.46 for the day.
2. WETF – WisdomTree was a success story in 2013 (culminating in a Forbes interview with lead WETF investor Michael Steinhardt in January 2014), but the stock has struggled in 2014 as earnings growth has slowed. WETF is down 42.5% year-to-date. Trader rolled a put position from Sept to Dec, selling around 30k of the Sept 10 puts around 0.80, and buying around 30k of the Dec 10 puts for around 1.45. WETF’s 52 week low is $9.11 from May.
3. CNP – CNP has sold off with the rest of the utility sector in the past 2 weeks, and was down 1.6% yesterday after its earnings report. The stock has traded in a tight range of $22 to $26 since March 2013. Though options rarely trade, there was a buyer of 20k of the Sept 24 calls to open for 0.60 in the morning, sending implied volatility up to near 6 month highs.
4. HIMX – Taiwanese chipmaker has struggled mightily since its March 2014 high. Ahead of earnings this morning, the Sept 6 / 7 risk reversal traded 25k times for a 0.01 credit, selling put and buying call.
5. JNS – Seller of 14k of the Sept 12 puts at an average price of 0.81 to close, to buy 15k of the Dec 10 puts for 0.70 to open. With the stock’s recent decline, JNS is now down 5% year-to-date, though has held its 200 day moving average (now around $11.41) so far this week. The stock has not traded below $10 since November 2013.