The benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose modestly to record closing highs for a second straight day on Thursday (Apr. 16) on optimism that the worst of the Middle East conflict had passed after Israel agreed to a temporary ceasefire with Lebanon and U.S. President Donald Trump indicated the U.S. and Iran could meet again on the weekend.
Trading was choppy, however, after Trump announced the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon and told reporters Iran had offered not to have nuclear weapons for more than 20 years. Earlier in the day, Bloomberg cited Gulf and European officials saying the U.S. needs about six months to reach an Iran deal.
Regarding the options market, a total volume of 64,562,778 contracts was traded on Thursday.
Top 10 Option Volumes
Top 10: Tesla Motors, NVIDIA, Cboe Volatility Index, Advanced Micro Devices, Netflix, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Amazon.com, Strategy
While Nvidia’s recent winning streak was grabbing headlines, Advanced Micro Devices has been on a tear of its own—closing at another all-time high Thursday.
AMD stock closed up 7.8% at $278.26 on Thursday. That beats its prior record of $264.33 back in October.
A total number of 1.33 million options related to Advanced Micro Devices were traded on Thursday, of which call options accounted for 67%. Particularly high volume was seen for the $270 strike call option expiring Apr 17, with 82,105 contracts trading. $AMD 20260417 270.0 CALL$
Microsoft stock rose 2.2% on Thursday.
A total number of 1.06 million options related to Microsoft were traded on Thursday, of which call options accounted for 72%. Particularly high volume was seen for the $420 strike call option expiring Apr 17, with 87,649 contracts trading. $MSFT 20260417 420.0 CALL$
Unusual Options Activity
Shares of Hims & Hers Health Inc. rose more than 11% on Thursday as analysts said the U.S. drug regulator's consideration to allow compounding pharmacies to manufacture popular peptides could benefit the telehealth firm in the long run.
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday said it planned to convene a panel of outside experts to review easing of restrictions for 12 peptides, popularly used for everything from tanning to longevity, and obesity to wound healing.
A total number of 522.55K options related to Hims & Hers Health Inc. were traded on Thursday, of which call options accounted for 80%. Particularly high volume was seen for the $27 strike call option expiring Apr 17, with 28,488 contracts trading. $HIMS 20260417 27.0 CALL$
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.
Top 10 bullish stocks: Apple, Tesla Motors, NVIDIA, Enovix Corporation, Virgin Galactic, IDEAYA Biosciences, NEBIUS, Intel, Dow Chemical, Amazon.com
Top 10 bearish stocks: AMC Entertainment, Service Properties Trust, Nokia Oyj, Netflix, Fermi Inc., PDD Holdings Inc, Nike, Pfizer, SUPER MICRO COMPUTER INC, SEALSQ Corp
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