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Midday Rundown, June 3


Stocks are trading lower on falling commodities prices and weak economic data Wednesday.

Data released from ADP before the opening bell showed the economy losing 532K private sector jobs in May. Economists were looking for a loss of 525K. April numbers were revised down to -545K, from the initial -491K.

A report on Factory Orders and the ISM Services Index, both released at 10:00 a.m. eastern time, also fell short of economist estimates.

Meanwhile, crude oil sank more than $2 on bearish weekly inventory data and gold gave up $13.20 to $971.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened lower on the poor jobs numbers and then slipped to session lows shortly after the ISM and Factory Orders numbers were released. Since then, trading has been choppy and the Dow is down 89 points midday.

The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is up 1.15 to 30.78. Trading in the options market is active, with approximately 3.1 million puts and 3.1 million calls traded in the first 2.5 hours, a ratio of 1.0.

The top options trade of the day is a block of 100K XLF Sep 9 puts traded for 35 cents along with 50K July 12 puts for 84 cents. This put ratio spread was bought (bought 12s, sold 9s) and represents a substantial bearish bet on the XLF.

Data Domain (DDUP) continues to see heavy trading. The day after EMC made a $30 bid for the company, NetApp (NTAP) raised its offer to $30. Some players appear to be hoping for a bidding war, as DDUP Sep and July 35 calls are seeing active trading Wednesday.

Meanwhile, some traders are tuning in to TIVO calls after the company won a patent ruling against DISH. Volume in TIVO is running at 7X the usual, with 20K calls and 6300 puts traded.

Bullish trading is also being seen in CBS, DISH, and Select Sector Industrials (XLI). Meanwhile, bearish trading is picking up in GE, Infinera (INFN), and the Powershares QQQ (QQQQ).

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About the author


Frederic Ruffy is the Senior Options Strategist at Whatstrading.com, a site dedicated to helping traders make sense of the complex and fragmented nature of listed options trading.

In addition to writing market commentary and trading-related books and articles, Fred has also worked as an instructor, educating investors on advanced topics like measuring volatility, the benefits of sector rotation and the risks and potential profits from trading around earnings. His market observations are mentioned frequently in the financial press including Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, and Bloomberg.

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