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Utility stock NextEra Energy Inc (NYSE:NEE) just hit a 52-week high after breaking above resistance just above the 80 strike that has been in place since May. Plus, the ascending 20-day moving average now sits at this former level of pressure.

On the weekly chart, NEE just hit a weekly close above a trendline connecting weekly highs since the end of 2021. Plus, the equity took out heavy call open interest (OI) at the 80 strike that expires on Sept. 20, with September being the heaviest call open interest month.

Short interest hit an all-time high in May. And though there’s mostly been covering since then, there was a 15% build from July-August ahead of this week’s breakout that has fresh shorts underwater.

Our recommended January call has a leverage ratio of 7.1, and will double on a 14.8% rise in the underlying shares.

Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) stock is up 5.5% at $85.42 at last glance, after news that CEO John Donahoe is retiring in October and will be replaced by former executive Elliott Hill, who is coming out of retirement for the role after working 32 years at the company. Donahoe's stint at the helm has been rocky, and investors are optimistic about the change. 

The stock has yet to recover from June 28, when it dropped 22.4% for its worst day ever after mixed earnings results and a guidance warning. Still, today's pop has the shares pushing closer to $93, where they resided before the bear gap. Year to date, the equity is down 21.3%. 

Options bulls are chiming in on the buzz, with 111,000 calls exchanged so far in comparison to 58,000 puts. Overall, NKE has already seen more than double its average daily options volume. Expiring at the end of the day, the September 85 call is the most popular by far, where new positions are opening. 

Several analysts raised their price targets on Nike stock today as well, citing the positive change. The 12-month consensus price target of $92.25 is a slim 7.8% premium to current levels, so more bull notes could be on the way if the stock continues to rise on the charts. 

Wall Street is fairly quiet this morning, as this week's rate-cut buzz begins to fade. Following yesterday's market surge that saw fresh record highs for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and S&P 500 Index (SPX), futures on the blue-chip index are cautiously higher ahead of the open, while futures on the other two major benchmarks dip into the red. Heading into today, all three indexes are headed for their second consecutive weekly gains. 

Continue reading for more on today's market, including: 

• 2 crypto stocks enjoying the risk-on environment. 
• Gold stock outperforming amid broad-market tailwinds. 
• Plus, Nike CEO retires; CEG starts up nuclear plant; and MLKN earnings disappoint. 

5 Things You Need to Know Today

1. The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw over 2.1 million call contracts and more than 1.6 million put contracts exchanged on Thursday. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.77 and the 21-day moving average remained at 0.65.
2. Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) stock is up 7.8% premarket, after the athletic retailer announced CEO John Donahoe was retiring and will be replaced by Elliott Hill amid corporate restructuring. Year to date, the Dow stock is down 25.4% heading into today. 
3. FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) stock is 13% lower before the bell, after the shipping giant reported a significant decline in profits for the first quarter, as well as a trimmed full-year guidance. Morgan Stanley responded with a downgrade to "underweight" from "equal-weight," while five other brokerages chimed in with price-target cuts. FedEx stock was up nearly 19% heading into today.
4. Shares of MillerKnoll Inc (NASDAQ:MLKN) are down 5% before the bell, after the furniture name's disappointing fiscal first-quarter results and weak guidance. Should these losses hold, MLKN will dip into the red for the year. 
5. What's coming up next week on Wall Street. 

Japan Keeps Rates Unchanged

There's more to option trading than just picking the proper strike price. Once a position has been established, it's important for option players to know what courses of action are available so they can work to proliferate profits, or limit their losses, by the time the options expire. Below, we'll discuss options expiration, exercise, and assignment.

Options Expiration

Equity options expire on Fridays, on either a monthly or weekly basis. Standard monthly options expire on the third Friday of every month, while weekly options -- you guessed it -- expire at the close each Friday. So, for example, an October 100 call would expire at the close on Friday, Oct. 21, while the weekly 10/7 100-strike call would expire at the close on Friday, Oct. 7.

If you choose not to take action on a trade by market close on the expiration date, your option will expire. For out-of-the-money options, many buyers will choose to simply let these options expire worthless, especially if it is not worth the brokerage fees to sell to-close the option. When this happens, the option buyer will lose the initial premium paid.

On the other hand, option sellers are typically looking for their contracts to expire out of the money. In these situations, the trader who sold the option to open can pocket the initial premium received on the sale.

Options Exercise

When an in-the-money option expires, it will be automatically exercised upon expiration. But at any point within the option's lifetime, the buyer is able to exercise their in-the-money option to either buy (call options) or sell (put options) shares of an underlying equity at the strike price.

As an example, say a bullish trader purchased a 40-strike call option on XYZ.  By the time expiration rolls around, XYZ is trading at $45 per share, and the trader decides that she would like to own the 100 underlying shares of XYZ, since she believes the stock will continue to rally. Before market close on expiration, the trader can choose to exercise her option and purchase 100 shares of XYZ for $40 per share, therefore receiving $4,500 worth of stock for $4,000.

Or, let's say the speculator was a short seller who bought 40-strike calls as an options hedge. By doing so, she just established a maximum repurchase price on the shorted shares that moved against her.

On the other hand, if a bearish trader had purchased a put option on XYZ for $50, she can then choose to sell the 100 underlying shares of XYZ to the put writer for $5,000, instead of the market value of $4,500. Or, perhaps the trader was an XYZ shareholder seeking options insurance in case of a dip. By exercising the in-the-money put, she minimized portfolio losses.

Options Assignment

Assignment is what happens on the side of the option seller when the option buyer chooses to exercise their option. For call sellers, this can mean having the underlying shares called away; for put sellers, it means being obligated to purchase the underlying shares of XYZ at the strike-price. An option seller can be assigned at any point the option is in-the-money during the life of the option, although the risk of assignment increases as the option nears expiration.

Of course, there are other ways to exit an option trade before expiration, including the option to buy to close or sell to close an option, or you can adjust your position by rolling out, up, or down. As always, it's important to do your research and discuss your needs with your broker, and keep an eye on your positions.

Several industries are today responding to the Federal Reserve's outsized interest rate cut. The chip sector is having a positive reaction to the policy move, with Arm Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:ARM) and ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ:ASML) shares rallying as investors return to a risk-on attitude.

ARM was last seen 2.6% to trade at $141.99 at last glance, testing a ceilings at the $150 level after conquering the 20-day moving average earlier this month. Shares have pulled back quite substantially from a July 9, record high of $188.75, but still boast an 88.8% year-to-date lead, and even better 168.6% 12-month gain.

Looking to close above its 20-day trendline for the first time since late August, ASML is up 5.9% to trade at $834.57 at last check. The semiconductor stock staged a bounce off its lowest level since January just last week, and is set to close above recent pressure at the $820 level. In the last 12 months, the equity added 10.4%.

Call traders are blasting Southwest Energy Co (NYSE:SWN) today, after news that the company's merger with Chesapeake Energy (CHK) will occur in the fourth quarter of this year. The merger, in which CHK will buy out SWN for $7 billion, was delayed in April. 

So far, SWN has seen 101,000 calls exchanged in comparison to just 4 puts, which already represents 30.9 times the stock's average daily options volume. The majority of this volume is made up of European style options, while in the American style, the January 2025 7-strike call is popular. 

At last glance, SWN was up 4.2% to trade at $6.61, and breaking into positive territory for 2024. The stock is extending a bounce off support at the $6 region that has kept losses in check for a year, and trading at its highest levels since July. 

Amid broader-market tailwinds, December-dated gold futures were last seen 0.6% higher at $2,615.90, enjoying a lift following the U.S. Federal Reserve's 50 basis-point rate cut. 

Though better known for its silver production, gold-adjacent stock Coeur Mining Inc (NYSE:CDE) -- last seen up 3.4% to trade at $6.98 -- is chip-shot from yesterday's nearly three-year high of $7.39. CDE has risen alongside the outperforming precious metals sector, up a whopping 215% over the past 12 months. Comparatively, gold futures have added 44.7% in this same time frame, while the S&P 500 Index (SPX) has only managed a 52-week growth of 28.6%. 

Coeur Mining shares managed to break above pressure at the overhead 80-day moving average on Thursday, Sept. 12, following news the company was able to expand output at its Rochester mine in Nevada. Previously, support stemmed from a floor near $5.20.

Meanwhile, short interest has been building, up 13.6% in the most recent two-week reporting period. The 19.84 million shares sold short now account for 5% of the stock's available float, and would take roughly three days for shorts to cover, at CDE's average pace of trading. 

After the Federal Reserve's first interest rate cut in four years, Bitcoin (BTC) today moved above $63,000 for the first time since Aug. 27. Crypto stocks MARA Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ:MARA) and Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) sport solid intraday gains as a result.

Plus, BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ:IBIT) is higher, up 6.4% at $36.35 at last glance. IBIT is an ETF a lot of investors are going to want to keep their eyes on, too, as the outcome of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election could have major implications for the crypto sector.

MARA was last seen 4.6% higher at $16.04. While shares are down 31.9% in 2024, they still maintain a 72.2% year-over-year lead with support from the 10-day moving average, which swept in amid a bounce from a Sept. 6 dip to their lowest level since December.

It's worth keeping an eye on the equity's short interest, which gained 15.9% over the last month. The 81.01 million shares sold short account for 28.1% of MARA's available float.

Meanwhile, Coinbase stock was last seen 4.6% higher at $170.08. Sporting a more modest 1.7% year-to-date loss, COIN fell on Sept. 6 as well to touch its lowest point since February. For the last 12 month, though, shares still boast an over 122% lead.

It seems options traders found an attractive entry point amid Coinbase stock's pullback. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), COIN's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.84 sits in the highest possible percentile of readings over the last 12 months.

IBIT is relatively new to the game, debuting on Jan. 11. The ETF surged to a March 13 all-time high of $41.99, and just reclaimed support at its 80-day moving average, which moved in as resistance at the end of August. So far this quarter, IBIT has added 6.5%.