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CNBC Stock Blog
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Financial stocks are seeing huge options activity Tuesday, led by State Street, which is down roughly 50 percent after reporting a 71 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings.
Options volume for State Street, whose shares [STT
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] are trading just under $19 at midday, was six times normal this morning. The February 35 puts, which were out the money Friday, traded higher by more 400 percent today from $4.20 to $18.70, according to OptionMonster's tracking systems.
Heavy options activity was not confined to State Street, however, as names across the sector were affected by concerns over stability a day after the Royal Bank of Scotland announced historic losses. Shares of PNC Financial Services [PNC
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] are down some 30 percent to about $26 after options spiked to five times their usual volume. PNC's February 40 puts, which were $2.50 in the money Friday, ran from $6 to $14.70 in the first 90 minutes of today's session alone.
Options volume in both Bank of America [BAC
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] and JP Morgan [JPM
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] doubled in that same time frame. BAC saw 120,000 changing hands compared with a 70,000 daily average, and JPM saw 127,000 trade versus a 69,000 average.
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Jon 'DRJ' Najarian is a professional investor, CNBC contributor, and cofounder of OptionMonster.com.
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Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes