Feb 20 Friday Morning Notes

The SPY put in a low of 209.24 yesterday and a high of 210.42. It closed at 209.98. It's currently trading around 209.57 in the pre-mkt.

Here's what I'm watching today

DE:
Deere & Co. reported a 17% drop in sales and warned of further difficulty as the farm-equipment maker continues to suffer from weak demand.
Still, the company's results topped analysts' expectations.

WMT is down 1.2% at 82.50 after closing yesterday at the lows of the day at 83.50 on disappointing earnings/outlook. The straddle on the close was pricing a move of $0.77.

Noodles & Co. NDLS, -26.50%  reported fourth-quarter earnings rose to $3.5 million, or 11 cents a share, from $2.4 million, or 8 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding items, the casual restaurant chain earned 13 cents a share, below the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of 14 cents. Revenue rose 19% to $108.5 million.

NDLS saw its short interest increase 9.1% to 19.4% of the float. The stock had 5400 puts in OI and 4500 calls. It had traded 3500 calls and 1k puts on the day going into the report.

Recap from day prior:

I bid for strangles on WMT, SCTY and SUNE on the open but all three ripped way too quickly in the first minute so nothing filled. It makes you realize how illiquid the pre-market is.

DLPH saw some opex 80 call buying when the stock was trading around 79.15. The stock ended up ripping to 79.80 before pulling back on the day to close at 79.41.

AMAT saw relentless call buying across several different expirys. It traded 144k calls yesterday when it usually trades 23k calls. Total call OI in the name is 727k. It traded 7 calls for every put. The stock finished up 3.4% on the day.

MA saw about 6k ITM 88.5 opex put buys with the stock trading around 88. However the stock ended up closing near the highs of the day at 89.20.