Big Printin’ 7/6/15: $AXP, $MU, $VLO

Here is some generally directional, untied options activity that caught my eye during Monday’s trading:

1.. MU – The stock continues its ytd implosion, down almost 4% today, marking a 30% decline over the last month.  At least one trader appears to be looking the other way, shortly after noon there was an opening buyer of 30,000 of the MU Aug 19 calls for .83 when the stock was $18.78.  And then a few hours later when the stock was $18.50 there was a buyer to open of 20,000 of the Aug 19 calls for .81 to open, making a total of 75,000 trading on the day.  Break-even on these calls is just below $20 level the stock broke-down below falling their disappointing earnings report two weeks ago and should serve as meaningful technical resistance for the time being:

2. AXP –  a bullish risk reversal was bought in AXP when the stock was $77.50, a trader sold to open 14,000 Oct 72.50 puts at 1.36 and bought to open 14,000 Oct 82.50 calls for 1.19, resulting in a .17 credit which the trader would receive if the stock is between 72.50 and 82.50 Oct expiration. The trader has long exposure above 82.50 and the worst case scenario is that the trader is put 1.45 million shares at 72.50 or below and suffers losses.

3. VLO – Despite the massive drop in oil today, shares of oil refiner Valero made a new 52 week and multi year high. One trader looked the other way though, when the stock was $65.18 a trader bought to open 4,000 July 10th weekly 65 puts for .90 to open, which break-even this Friday at $64.10, down less than 2%.  Regular readers know that I can’t offer an intelligent fundamental reason why Exxon is hovering just above 52 week lows, and VLO is where it is at highs. Oil stocks are not my  bag, but all I know is that VLO’s chart is an anomaly in the oil patch: