Today's Options Market Update

After a lackluster span, holiday diversion looms as a host of big box retailers share results in coming days. Though the week might hinge on Nvidia (NVDA) earnings late Wednesday, Wall Street could tune in to retail reports for a consumer check in a fraught time for sentiment. Major indexes struggled early, with tech shares—including Nvidia—back under pressure for the most part.

The shopping fest kicks off tomorrow morning with Home Depot (HD), followed by Target (TGT) and Walmart (WMT) Wednesday and Thursday. Last week featured rotation out of tech into other sectors, along with declining rate cut hopes and rising yields. That doesn't necessarily mean the rally is over. It's worth pointing out the bullish seasonality that accompanies November and December and the potential for performance chasing by fund managers, especially since stocks have pulled back recently. Then there's Nvidia's earnings report, which has the potential to reignite the 'AI bull trade' or add fuel to recent concerns around high valuation and over-investment."

Stocks plowed through a mixed session Friday after their mid-week stumble, with chip shares rebounding from recent nearly one-month lows. While investors harbor hope that Nvidia's outcome could ease recent AI valuation concerns, that's not a slam dunk considering the market's unfriendly response to the last few Nvidia reports. Beyond Nvidia and retail earnings, some fresh data could help bring more clarity, even if Thursday's September nonfarm payrolls report will reflect outcomes collected two months ago. Consensus is for job gains of around 50,000, roughly what's needed to keep unemployment at 4.3%.

Source: Schwab Center for Financial Research

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield (TNX) is slightly lower to 4.131%.

The U.S. Dollar Index ($DXY) is higher by 0.23 to 99.53.

WTI Crude Oil (/CL) is down ~0.30% to $59.91/barrel.

Gold prices have traded in a range of $4,051.10-$4,107.60 and were last seen trading lower by ~0.49% to $4,074.20/oz.

Natural Gas prices have traded in a range of $4.409-4.533 today and were last seen trading lower by 0.96% to $4.522.

Bitcoin (BTC) is lower by ~0.12% to $94,177.09 today.

Shares of Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL + $16.11 to $292.52) are gapping up this morning following news that Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway took a stake in the company during the third quarter. According to a 13-F filing released Friday the investment firm purchased 17.8M shares of Alphabet during the quarter, though the price and exact time of the purchases are unknown. Calls are outnumbering puts ~5:2 with the November 21^st 300.00 call seeing the most action from traders (volume is 39,181).

Also trading to the upside this morning is Sea Ltd. (SE + $5.36 to $146.21) after the Singapore-based digital entertainment and e-commerce company announced a share repurchase program of up to $1B of its American depositary shares. Separately, Philip Securities upgraded SE to “Buy” from “Neutral” while maintaining their $170.00 price target on the stock. Philip Securities analyst Helena Wang raised her FY25/26 revenue estimates to reflect improved growth in all three of the company’s core businesses: Garena (digital entertainment), Shopee (e-commerce) and Monee (digital financial services). Calls are outnumbering puts nearly 3:1 with the November 21^st 155.00 call leading the way (volume is 851).

New 52-week highs (72 new highs today): Albemarle Corp. (ALB + $9.14 to $124.28), Insmed Inc. (INSM + $1.68 to $194.90), Welltower Inc. (WELL + $2.94 to $196.76)

Some unusual call activity (nearly 6:1 calls over puts) is being seen in CVS Corp. (CVS + $1.96 to $79.77) as option traders primarily target the November 21^st 82.00 call. Volume on this contract is 22,463 versus open interest of 500, so we know that the volume primarily represents fresh positioning. The bulk of the transactions consisted of various-sized blocks that were bought at various times for between $0.24-$0.32 each, which suggests bullish intent.

Shares of Dell Technologies Inc. (DELL - $9.81 to $123.95) are falling to a two-month low this morning after Morgan Stanley “double downgraded” the server and PC maker to “Underweight” from “Overweight” and cut their price target on the stock to $110.00 from $144.00. Analysts at Morgan Stanely cited rapidly rising NAND and DRAM prices and the potential negative impact to Dell’s margins. Calls are slightly outnumbering puts, but the November 21^st 120.00 put is the highest volume contract (volume is 3,596).

Also trading to the downside this morning is XPeng Inc. (XPEV - $1.46 to $23.55) after the China-based EV-maker reported a Q3 loss of $0.01 per share ($0.04 beat) on revenue that increased 102% year-over-year (YoY) to $2.862B (slightly below the $2.87B expected). XPeng’s Q3 deliveries jumped 149% YoY to 116,007 units and the company guided Q4 deliveries to a range of 125-132K. Calls are outpacing puts better than 3:1 with the January 2026 30.00 call garnering the most attention from traders (volume is 10,636).

New 52-week lows (169 new lows today): Builders FirstSource Inc. (BLDR - $1.03 to $102.41), Clorox Company Inc. (CLX - $0.97 to $102.72), Lennox International Inc. (LII - $4.41 to $467.09)

Some unusual put activity (better than 3:1 puts over calls) is being seen in Voyager Technologies Inc. (VOYG - $1.15 to $18.72) which is primarily being driven by activity on the January 2026 17.50 put. Volume on this contract is 1,735 versus open interest of 71, so it’s likely that nearly all the volume represents new positioning. The bulk of the transactions consisted of various-sized blocks that were bought around the same time at the ask price of $2.05 each, which suggests bearish intent.

CG Oncology Inc. (CGON + $1.28 to $42.29): Option volume is running at ~228x the daily average on this late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company which is primarily being driven by two large blocks that simultaneously traded on the January 2026 expiration earlier this morning:

• 50.00 call (open interest is 2,116): A 4,000 contract block was bought for $3.05 when the bid/ask spread was $1.25 x $4.80.
• 65.00 call (open interest is 4): A 4,000 contract block was sold for $1.26 when the bid/ask spread was $0.30 x $2.25.

We know that both these blocks are new positions based on the respective open interest figures and it appears a $15.00-wide bull call spread was established for a net debit of $1.79 (x 4,000 contracts x 100 multiplier, excluding commissions). The positioning suggests that the block trader believes that CGON will close above the break-even price of $51.79 at expiration.

Blue Owl Capital Inc. (OWL + $0.72 to $13.90): Option volume is running at ~9x the daily average on this alternative asset manager as option traders primarily target two contracts:

• November 21^st 14.00 put (volume is 20,567 vs. open interest of 11,389): Contracts were mostly being bought at various times for between $0.20-0.37 each, which suggests bearish intent.
• December 19^th 13.00 put (volume is 15,572 vs. open interest of 513): The bulk of the volume is being attributed to a 10,000 contract block that was bought at the ask price of $0.45, which suggests bearish intent.

Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC - $0.14 to $11.45): Option volume is running at over 5x the daily average on this uranium producer which is primarily driven by a 15,000 contract block that was bought on the January 2026 19.00 call for $0.24 when the bid/ask spread was $0.15 x $0.30 (open interest is 3,914). We know that this block is a new position based on the open interest figure, and we can assume that the intent is bullish in nature since the trade took place above the midpoint of the bid/ask spread.

The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX + 0.83 to 20.66) has been on both sides of the unchanged line today (intraday range is 19.54-21.69), as equity markets are mixed around the midday mark (DJI - 32, SPX + 3, COMP + 38). VIX option volume is above average today at 583,716 contracts, and the activity has been slightly call-biased.