FDX - FedEx Corp. – Shares in FedEx rose as much as 7.25% on Tuesday morning to $106.00, the highest level since March, fueled by speculation the company may be the target of activist investor and Pershing Square Capital Management L.P. CEO, Bill Ackman. Rumors sparked heavy trading in FDX options, with volume nearing 60,000 contracts by 11:55 a.m. ET versus average daily volume of around 6,700 contracts. Trading in FedEx calls is outpacing that of puts, pushing the call/put ratio to 3.35 at midday. Options traders that were quick to place short-term bullish bets on the stock straight out of the gate this morning are seeing big intraday gains in the value of their positions today. It looks like early-movers picked up roughly 1,300 weekly calls at the Jul 12 ’13 $103 strike for an average premium of $0.79 per contract during the first hour of trading. These contracts are now in the money and changing hands at a last-traded price of $3.35 each, a roughly four-fold increase since this morning, as of 12:15 p.m. in New York.
MCP - Molycorp, Inc. – Upside call options in play on rare metals mining company, Molycorp, Inc., this morning look for shares in the name to rebound in the near term. Shares in MCP are up 4.0% today at $6.04 as of 12:15 p.m. ET. The most actively traded contracts on Molycorp as measured by volume are the Aug $7.0 strike calls, with volume in excess of 12,500 contracts versus open interest of 2,699 lots. Time and sales data suggests most of the volume was purchased for an average premium of $0.24 apiece, thus positioning call buyers to profit in the event that MCP shares rally 20% over the current price of $6.04 to exceed the average breakeven point…
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