Today’s tickers: CCL, ELX, OVTI & KKR
CCL – Carnival Corp. – Shares in the provider of cruise vacations are up 3.0% at $30.30 in early-afternoon trade, but options activity on the stock indicates the rally may lose steam. Investors appear to be selling in- and out-of-the-money calls on the cruise operator today perhaps on the expectation that today’s stock market rally represents but a brief respite from painful market pullbacks on the horizon. Abundant signs the market is slowing coupled with potential debt disasters overseas could dampen consumers’ willingness to spend hard-earned money on a non-essential cruise vacation. Shares in Carnival currently hover just above Wednesday’s fresh 52-week low of $29.35. Traders expecting Carnival’s shares to sink below $30.00 by expiration next month sold some 8,500 calls at the September $30 strike to pocket an average premium of $1.80 per contract. Call sellers keep the full amount of premium received as long as CCL’s shares fail to exceed $30.00 at expiration day. Premium received on the sale acts as a buffer against potentially uncapped losses to the upside, but protection gives way in the event that shares exceed the effective breakeven price of $31.80. Call selling spread to the higher September $32 strike where some 200 lots sold for an average premium of $0.92 a-pop. Reminders of the strong headwinds to growth going forward would likely once again spur investors to abandon ship on consumer discretionary names such as Carnival. The call options sold today expire several days ahead of CCL’s third-quarter earnings report on September 20.
ELX – Emulex Corp. – Shares in the provider of networking convergence solutions and equipment rose 1.6% this afternoon to $6.92, led higher by the broad market rally in U.S. stocks and Cisco’s better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings report. Emulex is slated to post its…
