Options Explosion in H-P (HPQ)

Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) was one we knew that there was going to be a massive volume spike in today when it came to the stock.  Rather than almost 20 million shares in a day, we have seen over 108 million shares trade hands.  The stock is lower by 6.7% at $42.90 after hitting 52-week lows in the Friday evening after-hours session.

What is also standing out is major put and call option trading.   It is not even NOON EST yet and we have seen over 30,000 CALLS in AUG-2010 and over 20,000 PUTS in AUG-2010 trade hands.  For September-2010 we have also just gone above the 30,000 contract mark for the CALLS and over 23,000 contracts trade in the PUTS.

So far the trading in the JAN-2011 options have seen much more trading volume in the PUTS versus the CALLS: over 12,000 PUTS versus only about 6,000 CALLS.

JON C. OGG

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Nabors Set To Buy Superior Well Services

Superior Well Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: SWSI) rocketed up at 8:35 AM EST 20.84%, resulting in shares increasing from $18.23 to $20.03.  This move is the result of Superior Well’s purchase by land rig contractor Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE: NBR) for approximately $900 million.  The morning has thus seen the movement of 2,964,810 shares, compared with Superior Well’s average volume of 547,172 shares.  The company’s success can also be measured with attention to its 52-week trading range, which currently stands at $5.66 â€" $19.96.

The pressure pumping company also just posted Q2 profits of $0.18 a share, totalling $6.1 million.  This is compared with analyst expectations, which predicted a loss of $0.10 per share.

-Michael B. Sauter

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