Midday Unusual Options Activity Update: PCS, S, PCS, AMD, CLWR, NRG, BKS

Implied Volatility Mover
Implied volatility in the options on MetroPCS (PCS) is moving up today, as the stock falls 49 cents to $11.55 in active trading of 28 million shares. The weakness is being attributed to the Sprint news, as an investment by Softbank might prevent Sprint from making a counter-bid for PCS. There had been talk that Sprint is interested in MetroPCS and would make an offer for the company after Deutsche Telecomm agreed last week to merge its T-Mobile business with PCS. In short, diminishing hopes for a deal with Sprint seems to be weighing on MetroPCS. Shares are down about 5 percent. Trading in the options is brisk as well. 77,000 calls and 77,000 puts so far. Implied volatility is moving up 21 percent to 52.

Volume Signals
Sprint Nextel (S) options volume is running 6.5X the (22-day) average, with 424,000 contracts traded and call volume accounting for 78 percent of the volume.

MetroPCS (PCS) options volume is 3X, the average daily, with 140,000 contracts traded and put volume representing for 52 percent of the activity.

AMD options volume is running 3X the average daily, with 46,000 contracts traded and call volume accounting for 96 percent of the activity.

Increasing options activity is also being seen in Clearwire (CLWR), NRG, and Barnes and Noble (BKS).

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