Option Movers | TSMC's $220 Call Options Draw Strong Interest; Alibaba Sees Bullish Sentiment
Market Overview
Stocks swayed between modest gains and losses on Thursday after economic data indicated consumer spending remains strong, giving the Federal Reserve room to maintain a slow pace in cutting interest rates this year.
Regarding the options market, a total volume of 49,932,035 contracts was traded.
Top 10 Option Volumes
Top 10: $Nvidia(NVDA)$, $Tesla(TSLA)$, $Apple(AAPL)$, $CBOE Volatility Index(VIX)$, $AMD(AMD)$, $TSMC(TSM)$, $Palantir(PLTR)$, $MicroStrategy(MSTR)$, $Sofi Technologies(SOFI)$, $Amazon(AMZN)$
$Apple(AAPL)$ stock closed down 4% on Thursday, its worst day since Aug. 5, following several reports of lackluster iPhone sales in China.
The iPhone maker’s stock price is down nearly 12% from its most recent peak in December, and it’s the worst-performing of the seven largest technology stocks so far in 2025.
The slide comes after a report Thursday from Canalys, a market research firm, which suggested that Apple had fallen to third place in terms of smartphones sold in China in 2024, behind homegrown manufacturers Vivo and Huawei.
There are 1.85 million $Apple(AAPL)$ option contracts traded on Thursday. Call options account for 59% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $235 strike call option expiring Jan. 17, with 105,369 contracts trading. $AAPL 20250117 235.0 CALL$
On Thursday, $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$ closed down 3.4%. The next catalyst probably needs to be something beyond the potential for President-elect Donald Trump to streamline the process for obtaining a self-driving robotaxi license, which would help it as it seeks to launch a self-driving robotaxi service late in 2025. The benefits to the stock from that have been used up. They are a big reason why Tesla’s stock has been up since the election.
Tesla also uses AI to train humanoid robots. Starting to sell robots in late 2025 or early 2026 would be another significant boost for Tesla shares.
There are 1.85 million $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$ option contracts traded on Thursday. Call options account for 61% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $420 strike call option expiring Jan. 17, with 94,434 contracts trading. $TSLA 20250117 420.0 CALL$
Unusual Options Activity
Shares of $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ rose 4% on Thursday after the global foundry reported fourth-quarter results that beat estimates and said it expects artificial intelligence-related growth to continue in the first quarter of 2025.
TSM expects 2025 capital expenditures to be between $38B to $42B, roughly 19% more than analyst expected, according to Bloomberg.
There are 612.72K $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$ option contracts traded on Thursday. Call options account for 67% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $220 strike call option expiring Jan 17, 2025, with 53,712 contracts trading. $TSM 20250117 220.0 CALL$
TOP Bullish & Bearish Single Stocks
This report shows stocks with the highest volume of bullish and bearish activity by option delta volume, which converts option volume to an equivalent stock volume (bought or sold).
If we take the total positive option delta volume and subtract the total negative option delta volume, we will get the net imbalance. If the net imbalance is positive, there is more bullish pressure. If the net is negative, there is more bearish pressure.
Based on option delta volume, traders bought a net equivalent of 5,543,167 shares of $Alibaba(BABA)$ stock. The largest bullish delta came from selling puts. The largest delta volume came from the 17-Jan-25 Put, with traders getting long 1,603,508 deltas on the single option contract.
Top 10 bullish stocks: $Alibaba(BABA)$, $Super Micro Computer(SMCI)$, $Constellation(STZ)$, $AMC(AMC)$, $ON Semiconductor(ON)$, $Williams-Sonoma(WSM)$, $Sofi Technologies(SOFI)$, $Mondelez(MDLZ)$, $Hershey(HSY)$, $HP Inc.(HPQ)$
Top 10 bearish stocks: $MARA Holdings(MARA)$, $Apple(AAPL)$, $Moderna(MRNA)$, $Dollar Tree(DLTR)$, $EOG Resources(EOG)$, $AMD(AMD)$, $Vale(VALE)$, $Novo Nordisk(NVO)$, $Nvidia(NVDA)$, $Plug Power(PLUG)$
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$(NVDA)$ $(TSLA)$ $(AAPL)$ $(VIX)$ $(AMD)$ $(TSM)$ $(PLTR)$ $(MSTR)$ $(SOFI)$ $(AMZN)$Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.
