Auto Stocks Ford, Ferrari in Focus
There's heavy call open interest in the September series for Ford
We called out the Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) pullback in our Opening View newsletter, with shares of the auto stock down 5.2% at $9.06 this morning. The company's bond rating was cut to junk status by Moody's, while Ford also unveiled new electric vehicles for the European market. The shares may have found support at the 20-day moving average, however.
Looking at the options data on Ford, our Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) shows a call-skew among near-term traders, coming in at 0.80. Peak open interest in the September series is at the 11 call, and the 10 call isn't far behind. Contracts are already changing hands at an accelerated pace in today's trading, with put volume exceeding the daily average within the first hour of action.
Ferrari N.V. (NYSE:RACE) is another auto stock to watch today. The luxury car maker unveiled some new products of its own, including the F8 spider (paywall), which will cost Italian customers around $289,000. While this move has RACE shares down 6.1% at $150.98 and below a recent floor at the $155 area, they're still roughly 14 points above their 200-day moving average.
Options traders at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) have continued to prefer puts over calls. In the last 10 days, 1.70 long puts crossed for every call, and this ratio has an annual percentile rank of 96 -- showing such an interest in puts over calls is unusual. The 110 put is the most popular contract in the September series, judging by open interest.