Stocks are rallying late-Tuesday and the S&P 500 is at session highs heading into the final hour. The strength comes despite weakness in the energy sector.
Crude oil dropped $2.50 and is again approaching $50 per barrel. Gold lost $7.5 to $1234 and ten-year Treasury bond yields are moving back towards 2% after another day of losses in the bond pits.
Energy (XLE) is the only losing sector. Utilities (XLU), healthcare (XLV) and tech (XLK) are seeing relative strength.
The S&P 500 has added 22.71 to 2009.45, CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is off 1.55 and probing session lows at 17.
Overall options volumes are light for a second day. Roughly 6.5 million calls and 5.9 million puts traded across the 12 exchanges, which is about 20% less than the daily average over the past month.
Some notable bearish trades have seen in the exchange-traded fund space, including a buyer of 22,500 Apr 34 – 36 put spreads on the iShares Emerging Markets Fund (EEM), a buyer of 20,000 Mar 38 – 43 put spreads on the SPDR Oil and Production Fund (XOP), and a block of 24,000 Mar 10 puts on the iPath S&P Crude Oil Return ETF (OIL).
Meanwhile, February 18 calls on the Market Vectors Russia Fund (RSX) are seeing bullish trading (buyers) today ahead of a summit in Minsk, Belarus tomorrow between Russians, Ukrainians, rebel leaders, and other international diplomats. More than 24m000 Feb 18 calls traded on the Russia ETF.
Notable flow is also being seen in Halliburton (HAL) Mar 41 puts ahead of news the oil driller is cutting its workforce by 6.5 to 8%. Pre-earnings positions are being opened in Tesla (TSLA), King Entertainment (KING), and Williams Companies (WMB).
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