Today’s tickers: T, LYB, XLY & NRG
T – AT&T, Inc. – The cost of buying AT&T put options that expire at the end of the week exploded after the U.S. Justice Department filed suit to block the telecommunications company’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA, Inc., on grounds the deal would hamper competition in the wireless market. Shares in Dallas, Texas-based AT&T fell as much as 5.5% on the news to $28.00, while options implied volatility jumped 30.0% to 27.97%. Frenzied options trading ensued on AT&T during a news conference held to explain the lawsuit. Nearly 200,000 option contracts have changed hands on the stock as of 1:25 pm in New York. Put options are more active, with around 1.5 puts trading on AT&T for each single call option in play this afternoon.
Trading traffic in the weeklies suggests investors are scrambling for near-term downside protection and asking questions later. Puts granting the right to sell shares in the wireless provider at $29.00 were purchased roughly 1,000 times for just $0.08 apiece around one hour into the trading session, but news of the lawsuit saw premium required to buy those puts sky-rocket to $1.02 in under 60 minutes. All told, more than 7,100 of the September ’02 $29 strike puts changed hands against open interest of 1,432 contracts thus far today. It looks like the majority of the contracts were purchased for an average premium of $0.25 apiece. Investors piled into puts at the Sept. ’02 $28 strike, as well, driving volume up past 9,600 contracts by lunchtime. On the flip-side, traders expecting the stock to rebound somewhat before the week is out, picked up nearly 3,000 calls at the Sept. ’02 $29 strike at an average premium of $0.16 each, and another 1,000 calls…
