$Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$'s options volume trading surged Thursday as the stock headed for its worst decline this year amid concerns the company may be forced to sell its Chrome business.
Call options that give the holders the right to buy the stock at $170 attracted the heaviest trading as investors and speculators unload them after the stock tumbled below that strike price. The share price slump boosted the odds that the con...

$Gap Inc (GAP.US)$ shares advanced almost 14% in extended trading after the apparel company raised its full year sales growth outlook.
The company behind clothing brands Old Navy, Banana Republic, Athleta and its namesake brand Gap now expects net sales to rise between 1.5% to 2% in fiscal year 2024. It previously expected sales to be up just "slightly." It also said it expects operating income to see mid-to-high 60% growth range, ...

$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ bears are fanning unusual option activities costing hundreds of millions of dollars as the stock price fluctuates less than a day after the AI chip giant reported its fiscal third quarter financial results.
The biggest of those unusual trades involved the sale of call options that give the holders the right to buy 12.3 million Nvidia shares at $135 by Dec. 20, exchange data compiled by moomoo showed. The ...

$Palo Alto Networks (PANW.US)$ shares slipped in extended trading after the company failed to deliver an outlook that blew past analysts' estimates.
The company forecast second quarter adjusted earnings to reach $1.54 to $1.56 a share in its fiscal second quarter, the midpoint of which is just in line with the $1.55 adjusted earnings expected by analysts, estimates compiled by Bloomberg show. Revenue was seen reaching $2...

$Target (TGT.US)$ options trading jumped amid increasing demand for protection against continued slump for a stock that has already plunged by more than 21% after posting its biggest earnings miss since 2022.
Shares tumbled to $121.18 at 12:02 p.m., poised for the lowest close in a year, after the company reported Wednesday morning a 12% decline in adjusted earnings to $1.85 for its fiscal third quarter that ended Nov. 2 af...

$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ institutional investors and speculators are pouring millions of dollars in the options market days ahead of earnings results that could test how long the AI-favorite could keep beating analysts' estimates.
The biggest among unusual options activities seen so far Monday involved a multi-leg trade that had an active buyer paying a $3.86 million premium for put options that gives him or her...

$Bitcoin (BTC.CC)$'s march to a fresh all-time fueled increased interest in stocks linked to the cryptocurrency, spurring heavier options trading.
The largest cryptocurrency advanced to a new all-time high as $94,057 in New York Friday afternoon amid a surge demand from buyers including $MicroStrategy (MSTR.US)$ and issuers of exchange traded funds. The software company whose business strategy includes buying and holdi...

$Trump Media & Technology (DJT.US)$ shares jumped almost 17% Monday, erasing earlier declines after the Financial Times reported that the social media company is in talks to buy crypto trading venue Bakkt, owned by $Intercontinental Exchange (ICE.US)$.
The stock of the company that's 53% owned by President-elect Donald Trump climbed to $32.78, erasing declines of as much as 5.5% earlier. $Bakkt Holdings (BKKT.US)$ s...

$PDD Holdings (PDD.US)$ saw bulls pour millions of dollars into call options after billionaire David Tepper's Appaloosa Management boosted its stake in the parent company of online retailer Temu.
Appaloosa added 3.36 million PDD American depositary receipts to its portfolio, taking its stake in the company to 456.7 million ADRs as of Sept. 30, according to Bloomberg data from the investment firm's 13F filing with ...

Michael Burry's Scion Asset Management boosted its stake in $Alibaba (BABA.US)$, $JD.com (JD.US)$ and $Baidu (BIDU.US)$ in the third quarter when these stocks rebounded, fueled by optimism over China's stimulus.
Scion reported a $21.2 million position in Alibaba, equal to 200,000 American depositary shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant as of Sept. 30, according to its 13-F filing with the Securities and Exchange Comm...