Bank Stocks Help Dow Jones Industrial Average Storm Higher

After a cautious open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has shot higher at midday, set to snap a five-day losing streak, as Wall Street awaits a vote on the Obamacare replacement bill from the House of Representatives. After struggling earlier in the week, the financial sector is leading the charge, with blue-chip bank stocks JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) near the top of the Dow. In the meantime, traders are also digesting this morning's surprise jump in weekly jobless claims and a seven-month high in new home sales.  

Continue reading for more on today's market -- and don't miss:

• 2 retail stocks surging after earnings. 
• Is it time to buy the dip on these bank stocks? 
• Plus, put volume surges on one hospital operator; a healthcare stock that's doubled in 2017; and the biotech getting blasted on drug trial results. 

Among the names seeing accelerated options trading today is hospital operator HCA Holdings Inc (NYSE:HCA), with puts trading at nine times the expected rate ahead of today's House vote on the health insurance bill. Much of the activity seems to come from the work of one trader, who may have rolled out his position of 1,250 weekly 3/24 83.50-strike puts to buy an equal number of options at the same strike in the weekly 3/31 series. The move gives the trader more time to profit from a downward move in HCA stock. The shares were last seen up 1.9% at $84.08. 

Looking at the top of the Nasdaq, healthcare stock Viewray Inc (NASDAQ:VRAY) is making a big move once again. Year-to-date, VRAY stock is up over 150%, including a 5.8% rise today to trade at $7.95, earlier touching a record high of $8.25. Despite these huge gains, short sellers continue to flock to the shares, with short interest up over 23% in the past two reporting periods. 

Disappointing drug trial results have Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc (NASDAQ:RARE) among the losers on the Nasdaq. The shares have so far lost 7.2% to trade at $72.73, though RARE stock remains above some key technical levels. For instance, the shares are trading just above their year-to-date breakeven level, as well as the 200-day moving average, a trendline that contained their January pullback.