- How Stock Investors Can Play Holiday Travel
- 3 Growth Opportunities in Tech: Analyst
- Prep Your Portfolio for Next Week: Stock Pickers
- Global Growth Good for Portfolio: Stock Picker
- Expect Tech Sector to Rise in Q4: Strategist
- Expect a 5-10% Market Pullback: Stock Picker
- 3 Stock Picks for This Volatile Environment: Portfolio Manager
- 3 Financial Stocks May Lead Final Rally: Market Researcher
- Gold's 'Money' Value is $4,000 to $11,000: Market Strategist
- Commercial Real Estate Bottom Near: Market Pro
MOST SHARED
- Wall Street Finds Profits by Reducing Mortgages
- CNBC VIDEO: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates 'Walk & Talk' at Columbia University
- What if a Recovery Is All in Your Head?
- Kraft Weighs Higher Cadbury Bid as Rivals Circle
- China Industrial Bank Eyes $2.64 Billion Rights Issue
- China Should Stop Property Stimulus Now: Central Bank
- CNBC VIDEO: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates 'Walk & Talk' at Columbia University
- U.S. Stocks Slip, Dollar Rises
- How Stock Investors Can Play Holiday Travel
- Time Lapse World Series Is A Great Play
- Hirschhorn: Greed...or Fear
- My Top 10 Tech Toys for the Holidays
- iPhone a Better Gaming Platform Than Android?
- May Day For Dendreon
- 100% Mortgage Financing From USDA
- Smallest US Businesses Borrowing Again: PayNet
- Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government
- US Job Losses to Bottom out Next Quarter: NABE
- Little Sign of Inflation on the Horizon: IMF
- Kraft Weighs Higher Cadbury Bid as Rivals Circle
- MBS Program Should be Extended: Fed's Bullard
- Warren Buffett, Bill Gates 'Walk & Talk' At Columbia
- Microsoft, News Corp Weigh Online News Pact
- Senate Democrats at Odds Over Health Care Bill
RSS FEED
CNBC Stock Blog
Text Size 
Ambac Financial Group is seeing unusual options activity Friday, as its shares rise 17 percent on the day.
The stock [ABK
Loading...
()
] move is only $0.19, as ABK is at $1.31 in midday trading after struggling to stay above the $1 mark for much of this week.
The options today are active at the March 2.5 strike, where a chunk of nearly 20,000 calls were bought for $0.15 against minimal open interest of 107 contracts. Those calls are now going for $0.20 to $0.25, according to OptionMonster's proprietary systems, which track unusual options trading in real time.
The action got our attention because it followed earlier activity we cited on Jan. 28, when the May 2.5 calls were trading on heavy volume as the stock traded at $1.23. Those calls, which went for $0.25 and $0.30 back then, are up a tad to $0.35 and $0.40.
- Complete Data on Rival MBIA [MBI
Loading...
()
]
Ambak, which insures bonds, made headlines earlier this week for granting $3 million in cash bonuses to four executives after its stock had fallen 95 percent in 2008. The company is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 25 before the market opens.
Disclosures:
I have positions in ABK.
_____________________________
Other Financial Insurers:
MGIC Investment [MTG
Loading...
()
]
Genworth Financial [GNW
Loading...
()
]
PMI Group [PMI
Loading...
()
]
_____________________________
Pete Najarian is a professional investor, CNBC contributor, regular co-host of CNBC's "Fast Money" and co-founder of OptionMonster.com.
_____________________________
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes