Options Market Statistics: Apple Shares Fall and Options Pop After Barclays Downgrade
News Highlights
$Apple (AAPL.US)$ shares fell by 3.58%, closing at $185.64. Its options trading volume is 1.37 million. Call contracts account for 56.5% of the whole trading volume.The most traded calls are contracts of $187.5 strike price that expire on January 5th. The total volume reaches 93,848 with an open interest of 1,376. The most traded puts are contracts of a $185 strike price that expires on January 5th; the volume is 69,048 contracts with an open interest of 6,237.
Apple shares slipped nearly 3.6% on Tuesday, after Barclays downgraded the stock to underweight and slightly trimmed its price target from $161 to $160.
Barclays analyst Tim Long wrote in a note to clients Tuesday that the iPhone 15′s current "lackluster" sales, specifically in China, presaged similarly weak iPhone 16 sales — weakness that Long expects will hold true for Apple's hardware sales broadly.
We are still picking up weakness on iPhone volumes and mix, as well as a lack of bounce-back in Macs, iPads and wearables," Long wrote. Analysts and investors had noted specific weakness in China iPhone sales as far back as October.
$Pfizer (PFE.US)$ shares rose by 3.27%, closing at $29.73. Its options trading volume is 0.36 million. Call contracts account for 75.8% of the whole trading volume.The most traded calls are contracts of $30 strike price that expire on January 5th. The total volume reaches 18,983 with an open interest of 8,318. The most traded puts are contracts of a $30 strike price that expires on January 19th; the volume is 6,297 contracts with an open interest of 52,347.
$Alibaba (BABA.US)$ shares fell by 3.55%, closing at $74.76. Its options trading volume is 0.34 million. Call contracts account for 68.7% of the whole trading volume.The most traded calls are contracts of $80 strike price that expire on January 19th. The total volume reaches 21,984 with an open interest of 85,171. The most traded puts are contracts of a $110 strike price that expires on January 19th; the volume is 13,771 contracts with an open interest of 2,112.
China's Alibaba Group said on Tuesday it had repurchased a total of 897.9 million of its shares for $9.5 billion during 2023.
The shares were bought in both the U.S. and Hong Kong stock markets, the company said in a filing.
The e-commerce giant said the remaining amount the company's Board had authorized for its share repurchase program, which is effective through March 2025, was $11.7 billion.
Our share repurchase program resulted in a net reduction of 3.3% in our outstanding shares in the last 12 months after accounting for shares issued under our ESOP (employee stock ownership plan)," the company said.
Unusual Stock Options Activity
Some notable call activity is being seen in $Apple (AAPL.US)$, which is primarily being driven by activity on the 05-Jan-2024 call. Volume on this contract is 93,848 versus open interest of 1,376.
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Daily Active Index & Sector ETF Options
Source: Barchart, Unusual Whales, CNBC
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