CIENA Stock & Options On Move (CIEN, NOK, SI)

CIENA Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) has seen what is nothing short of an odd move today in both the stock and in in call options activity.  There are some hints out there that Nokia-Siemens, the venture of Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) and Siemens AG (NYSE: SI), may go after CIENA after their failed attempt to acquire the Metro Ethernet Networks unit.  The Nokia-Siemens venture went after this unit, but CIENA won the deal despite some after-cut-off attempts.  CIENA shares are up 5% at $11.57 on 14.4 million shares as of 2:18 PM EST.  The 52-week trading range is $4.98 to $16.64 and the average volume is about 7.3 million shares per day.

Options trading is also VERY active considering the dead-money nature of this stock.  The JAN-2010 $12.50 CALLS have traded 15,615 contracts versus a prior open interest of 9,359 contracts.  The FEB-2010 $12.00    CALLS have also seen 13,110 contracts trade versus a prior open interest of 1,408 contracts.

While the markets stayed strong, CIEN remained fairly weak.  Yesterday’s $11.02 close was the first closing price above $11.00 since the day before Christmas.  If today’s gain hold, this would mark the highest CIENA share prices since December 11, 2009.

JON C. OGG

Delta Options Spiking (DAL, CAL, UAUA)

Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) is seeing action in options trading this morning as the calls were hot off the open with more than 10,000 February $12 calls trading with shares at $11.80 and rising, 2X daily volume in 10 minutes of trading with offer side buying in large blocks.  Shares of airline stocks are higher despite oil prices recent rise after positive share moves in Continental Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: CAL) and UAL Corporation (NASDAQ: UAUA) up 8%.  Delta shares are up 7.75% at $12.09 in early morning trading.

Joe Kunkle, OptionsHawk.com

Irish Banks Continue Surge (AIB, IRE)

If you watched bank stocks on Monday, then you probably saw how the Irish banks may be in for a massive 2010 as Allied Irish Bank (NYSE: AIB) and Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE) were both up huge.  Despite these two being hit with negative ratings in new coverage at Barclays this morning, both banks are trading higher after double-digit gains.  At 8:52 AM EST we have AIB up 3.8% at $4.28 on 80,000 pre-market shares and Bank of Ireland (IRE) is up 3.3% at $9.15 on 45,000 pre-market shares.

More bankground is here on yesterday’s move and how it was affecting the other troubled banks in the EU countries which are under the cloud of ratings agencies.

Jon C. Ogg
January 5, 2010