The Pentagon's move to label BABA and BIDU as Chinese military companies has lit up options markets Monday. Both names saw active near-term expiry chains, with the June 12 and June 18 dates drawing the most attention.
Alibaba put open interest clustered heavily around the $120 and $125 strikes for the June 18 expiry. Bearish flow dominated. The put-to-call skew signalled traders were buying downside protection fast. Baidu showed a similar bias, with June 18 puts outnumbering calls at near-term strikes.
The ORTEX stock score for Alibaba sits at 56.3 today. That is down from 60.1 in mid-May. Momentum has slid from 67 to 51 over that stretch. Traders see more pain ahead.
Chipmakers moved in the opposite direction. NVDA options chains were dense with near-daily expiries through late June. MU also carried a full ladder out to September. Wells Fargo raised its Micron price target to $1,220 today. That fuelled call buying in the June 18 and July contracts.
EchoStar grabbed attention for a different reason. ORTEX data flagged utilization hitting 93.49%, its highest in 52 weeks. Available shares to borrow dropped 50% in one week. Short-squeeze conditions are building. Options flow on SATS leaned heavily to the call side.
Geopolitics remain the wildcard. Iran headlines kept volatility bids elevated across index options. Traders are not letting their guard down.
ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
