Option Skews - Relatively Heavy Call Activity on Apple Inc, Las Vegas Sands Corp, Genworth Financial Inc, Broadcom Corp

Here are the stocks that saw a bias toward call activity in the previous session. This filtered scan is based on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) buy-to-open data. It looks for stocks where the previous day's call volume on the ISE is at least twice as great as the put volume. It then sorts the stocks based on the call volume. Since this is buy-to-open data, this can be a good source for finding stocks where optimism is emerging. Of particular interest to me would be situations where we see call activity on stocks that are still in intermediate-term downtrends. This would be a potentially cautionary sign from the contrarian perspective.

Companies included in today's scan results: Citigroup Inc (C), Dell Inc (DELL), DryShips Inc. (DRYS), Apple Inc (AAPL), Pfizer (PFE), Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS), Washington Federal (WFSL), Frontier Oil (FTO), E-Trade Financial Corp (ETFC), Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (FCX), RRI Energy Inc (RRI), Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO), Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT), Genworth Financial Inc (GNW), MetroPCS Communications, Inc. (PCS), Terra Industries (TRA), Newmont Mining (NEM), LDK Solar Co Ltd (LDK), Microsoft Corp (MSFT), Forest Laboratories (FRX), Barrick Gold (ABX), Broadcom Corp (BRCM), Cott Corp. (COT), Alcoa (AA), D.R. Horton (DHI).

Apple Inc, Las Vegas Sands Corp, Genworth Financial Inc, and Broadcom Corp are the charts that stood out to me -

• The daily chart of Apple shows the stock is back to test this resistance after a very mild rejection. A breakout would mark a new annual high.
• My colleague Elizabeth Harrow discussed Las Vegas Sands on Friday and I wanted to touch on this longer-term view which shows the breakout above resistance near 11. Since overtaking that zone in August, the stock has pulled back to retest it as support. The equity is up sharply off its lows but still has room before the next layer of resistance kicks in near 30.
• Genworth Financial is worth keeping an eye on. The daily chart shows the stock has now broken the pattern of descending highs. Short-term support sits near 9.
• Earlier this month I speculated that Broadcom might be entering a consolidation phase. The daily chart would seem to support that idea with boundaries forming near 31 and 26.

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