The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are also swimming in red ink
Stocks are lower at midday, brushing off another round of upbeat earnings reports, most notably from e-commerce titan Amazon.com (AMZN). Extending this morning's losses, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) was last seen down 246 points, and remains on its way to a losing week. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) are swimming in red ink as well, though both benchmarks are on track for modest weekly wins.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- Chip name tumbles despite sunny quarterly results.
- TWTR draws out bear notes amid growth concerns.
- Plus, options bears eye Colgate-Palmolive stock; ISNS soars after board update; and Reddit darling plummets on earnings miss.
One stock seeing an unusual amount of put activity today is Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL), despite its first-quarter earnings and revenue beating Wall Street's estimates. The company also received an upgrade from CFRA to "hold" from "sell," in addition to a price-target hike to $81. So far, 15,000 puts have crossed the tape, which is 17 times the intraday average, versus just 5,659 calls. Most popular is the May 77 put, with the 73 put in the same monthly series following up. The equity was last seen up 0.9% at $80.55, after briefly breaking above the $81 area for the first time in a week. It looks like shares have reconquered the support of both the 20- and 100-day moving averages, the latter of which has acted as resistance for much of 2021. This year, CL has shed 5.5%.
Standing near the top of the Nasdaq today is Image Sensing Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISNS), last seen up 29.6% at $5.97, after the company's board of directors announced a number of changes, including initiating a quarterly cash dividend, authorizing a stock buyback program, and making Autoscope Technologies ISNS' new parent. Though the resulting bull gap earlier pushed shares over $6 earlier, the equity still has a little longer to go before it reaches a Feb.18, three-year high of $6.36. Year-over-year, ISNS is up 44.6%.
At the bottom of the Nasdaq today is Microvision, Inc. (NASDAQ:MVIS), last seen down 14.9% to trade at $15.35, after reporting wider-than-expected quarterly losses. The latest Reddit "meme" stock has had a wild run on the charts of late, but is once again slipping below the 10-day moving average, just three sessions removed from notching a rise to $28 -- its highest level in over a decade. Today's negative price action has the stock down 19.4% quarter-to-date.