Today’s tickers: WFC, EQIX & TMO
WFC - Wells Fargo & Co. – Highly anticipated third-quarter earnings released from JPMorgan this morning knocked financials off what had started to look like a possible road to recovery. Shares in Wells Fargo, set to reveal its own performance for the third quarter ahead of the opening bell on Monday, fell 4.3% to $25.80 by 12:20 pm EDT. Put buyers burst onto the scene straight out of the gate on Thursday. Investors chomping at the bit for downside protection are snapping up puts that could have been purchased yesterday for a fraction of the present cost. Bearish action in the weeklys is heaviest at the Oct. ’14 $26 strike, where more than 12,000 now in-the-money puts changed hands against open interest of 3,465 contracts. It looks like more than 8,000 of the puts were purchased for an average premium of $0.39 a-pop by midday on Wall St. The premium required to buy the puts at the tail-end of Wednesday’s session ranged between $0.12 and $0.15 per contract. Investors are trading more than two put options on Wells Fargo this afternoon for each single call option in action on the stock today. Options implied volatility on WFC, which had come off earlier in the week, currently stands 9.7% higher on the day at 49.3%.
EQIX - Equinix, Inc. – Fresh prints in Equinix call options suggest one strategist is positioned for the price of the underlying to realize substantial, albeit limited, gains through expiration day in November. The ratio call spread initiated on the provider of network neutral data center services may be a bullish bet on the stock ahead of the company’s third-quarter earnings report on October 26. Shares in Equinix currently trade 0.75% lower on the day at $94.16. It looks like the…
