Market Overview

The S&P 500 ended lower on Wednesday(Jan 7), pulled down by declines in JPMorgan, Blackstone and other financials, while Nvidia and Alphabet lifted the Nasdaq as investors shifted toward AI-related stocks.

Regarding the options market, a total volume of 51,424,492 contracts was traded.

Top 10 Option Volumes

Source: Tiger Trade App

Strategy climbed 2.4%. Shares of the Bitcoin investor, formerly known as MicroStrategy, rallied after MSCI scrapped a plan to exclude so-called digital asset treasury companies from its indexes.

There are 707.67K Strategy option contracts traded on Wednesday, up 26% from the previous trading day. Call options account for 65% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $167.50 strike call option expiring January 9, 2026, with 50,224 contracts trading. $MSTR 20260109 167.5 CALL$

Unusual Options Activity

Source: Market Chameleon

Intel stock jumped 6% on Wednesday, marking its biggest intraday gain since September 18 last year. Intel launched Panther Lake, its new AI chip for laptops, at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, as the company seeks to reassure investors about the first product made using its next-generation manufacturing process called 18A.

There are 1.25M Intel option contracts traded on Wednesday, up 221% from the previous trading day. Call options account for 76% of overall option trades. Particularly high volume was seen for the $46 strike call option expiring January 9, 2026, with 74,326 contracts trading. $INTC 20260109 46.0 CALL$

TOP 10 S&P 500 Bullish & Bearish

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 966,064 shares of Microsoft stock. The largest bullish delta came from buying calls. The largest delta volume came from the 16-Jan-26 525 Put, with traders getting long 270,400 deltas on the single option contract.

Source: Market Chameleon

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