The ongoing feud between SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump is creating tailwinds for earth exploration (EO) competitors AST SpaceMobile Inc (NASDAQ:ASTS) and Rocket Lab USA Inc (NASDAQ:RKLB).

Trump and Musk have been trading barbs on social media over a tax and spending bill, with Trump suggesting over the weekend he may cut Musk's government contracts, and Musk threatening to decommission SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on X before reversing course.

ASTS is up 14.1% to trade at $35.58 at last glance, and earlier hit a new 2025 peak of $36.66. Shares are well on their its way to a sixth-consecutive pop and best day since April, with support from all key long- and short-term moving averages. The stock sports a 320.4% year-to-date lead and has already added over 70% so far this year. 

RKLB was last seen up 6.4% to trade at $30.77, after surging to $32.70 out of the gate, a chip shot from its Jan. 24 record high of $33.24. The shares have been in an uptrend since a double bottom around $16 in the spring. On track for a fifth gain over the last six sessions, Rocket Lab USA stock has added a whopping 596.6% over the past 12 months.

Both equities are getting blasted in the options pits today, with ASTS and RKLB each seeing triple the volume typically seen at this point. Most popular for the former is the June 40 call, and for the latter it's weekly 6/13 32-strike call, with new positions being opened at both.

Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) stock is up 2.6% to trade at $178.47 today, thanks to three price-target hikes, including two to $200 from Jefferies and BMO. The San Francisco-based software giant boasts a market cap just under half a trillion, and can seemingly do no wrong ahead of the company's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report, due out after the close on Wednesday, June 11. Leading up to the event, options traders are betting on more gains.

ORCL has a varied history of post-earnings moves. The stock shed 3.1% and 6.7% after its last two earnings reports in March and December. Prior to that though, the equity had gapped higher by double-digit percentage points after three-straight earnings reports. Overall, the shares average a post-earnings move, regardless of direction, of 9.1% after the last eight reports. This time around, the options market is pricing in a larger-than-usual post-earnings swing of 12%.

The stock has staged quite the V-shaped rally since its April 7 12-month lows of $118.86, up 50% off that bottom. Despite the 42% year-over-year lead, 14 of the 34 brokerages are on the sidelines with tepid "hold" ratings, while the consensus 12-month price target of $182.34 is only a 2% premium to its current perch. With this in mind, an upbeat post-earnings reaction could spark a wave of overdue bull notes.

Options traders have been loading up on calls, per ORCL's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 2.51 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) ranks in the 86th percentile of its annual range.

Even with earnings looming, now (and later this week) might be a good time to weigh in with options, too. ORCL's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 95 out of 100 means it has exceeded options traders' volatility expectations over the past year. 

Media & entertainment stock Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD) was last seen up 10.1% at $10.81, after the company announced it will split into two publicly traded companies by next year. CEO David Zaslav will head the streaming and studios company, which will contain HBO Max, while CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels will become CEO of the global networks business, which includes CNN, TNT Sports, and Discovery.

Today's pop has Warner Bros stock breaking above recent pressure at $10, trading at its highest level since April 1. The equity is also moving into positive territory for the year with a now-3.1% year-to-date gain. 

Options bulls are blasting the stock after today's reports. So far, 60,000 calls have crossed the tape -- 11 times the amount typically seen by WBD at this point in a session -- compared to 6,650 puts. The June 11 call is the most popular, followed by the weekly 6/13 11-strike call, with new positions opening at the latter. 

Calls were more popular than usual leading up to today, too. WBD's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 5.67 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) ranks higher than 99% of readings from the past year. 

Quantum computing stock IonQ Inc (NYSE:IONQ) is up 4.1% to trade at $40.61 this morning, after the company announced it will buy London-based Oxford Ionics in a $1.075 billion cash-and-stock deal. 

Last month, IONQ looked like it was heading back to $50 for the first time since a Jan. 7 record high of $54.68. The shares have cooled off in June, though their 20-day moving average has stepped up to contain any major pullbacks. Longer term, the equity boasts an astounding 409% year-over-year lead. For 2025, however, the stock is still down 4.4%.

Despite short interest falling 8.6% in the last two reporting periods, the 40.33 million shares sold short make up a healthy 16.9% of the security's available float. This makes IONQ ripe for a short squeeze.

An unwinding of pessimism among short-term options traders could generate tailwinds as well. This is per IONQ's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.15, which ranks in the 89th percentile of annual readings.

Options traders are already chiming in, with 27,000 calls across the tape so far today -- double the volume typically seen at this point -- compared to only 4,543 puts. The most active contract is the weekly 6/13 42-strike call, with positions being sold to open there.

Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ:HOOD) stock is down 6.5% to trade at $69.95 today, after S&P Dow Jones Indices announced no new inclusions to the benchmark S&P 500 Index (SPX). The fintech company, along with AppLovin (APP), also lower out of the gate today, were both hoping to get the nod given their recent performance on the charts.

This is poised to be HOOD's worst single-session decline since March 26, but make no mistake; the stock has been a beast on the charts, hitting a record high of $77.80 on Friday. Year-over-year, the equity is up 218%. However, the steady uptrend -- with support in place at its 200-day moving average -- has the security's 14-Day Relative Strength Index (RSI) deep in "oversold" territory at 81. A price-target hike to $85 from $70 at Deutsche Bank reflects the longer-term analyst optimism even amid this short-term setback.

Short-term traders have been betting bearishly. The shares' Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.74 is only two percentage points from an annual high. A further unwinding of this pessimism could keep the wind at the equity's back.

Robinhood has outperformed options traders' volatility expectations over the last 12 months, making this an excellent opportunity to weigh in with options. This is per its Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 84 out of 100.

“Bulls might find frustration in the lack of upside movement the past several sessions, especially after the bullish ‘outside day’ on May 19 that has historically produced bullish price action two weeks after a signal…We enter the first week of the month and final month of the quarter with the SPX trading roughly 89 points below resistance at the round 6,000-millenium mark, which is also in the vicinity of the pre-Inauguration close in January… the technical backdrop in the short-term is neutral, given the index enters the week above its 2024 close but has slightly more downside potential to support at 5,783 than upside potential to 6,000”

                -Monday Morning Outlook, June 2, 2025

Coming off a week in which the S&P 500 Index (SPX--6,000.36) moved sideways following the post-holiday Tuesday morning gap higher and a predominance of call build-up on short-term SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY--599.14) options, SPY option players changed their tune last week.

As seen on the chart immediately below, short-term option players showed a bias toward puts on options expiring this past Friday.  

In the wake of the put buildup on the SPY, the SPY notched four winning sessions out of five. The bullish price action amid the put buildup is a scenario contrarians welcome, as it represents skepticism that could be money waiting to be deployed.

Last week’s rally produced another two-week “win” for bulls following the May 19 bullish “outside day” signal. Prior to the latest signal, the historical quantified results were in the bulls’ favor following such a candle as described in the header on the table below. Prior to the May 19 signal, the SPX rallied 86% of the time two weeks later with an average 3% return when positive.

The most recent signal helped the win rate for bulls, but the 0.1% return hurt the average win, with the average win now 2.8%, down from 3% prior to the May 19 bull signal.

Last week’s rally pushed the SPX above its pre-Inauguration close of 5,995 for the first time since closing below this level in late February. Additionally, the index moved above the 6,000-millennium mark, albeit barely, a level that marked a short-term top in mid-November when the SPX touched it for the first time ever. As such, the 5,995-6,000 area could prove to be a short-term challenge, with the SPX trading only about 150 points below its February all-time highs.

As a footnote to the significance of 6,000, both call and put open interest at the June 20th expiration SPX 6,000-strike is huge, about 240,000 and 220,000 contracts, respectively. This strike could have a “sticky” effect into June standard expiration, with the SPX not moving too far above or below this strike.

The 5,995 pre-Inauguration close and 6,000-millennium mark are in play amid a potentially bearish Relative Strength Index (RSI) divergence, as the SPX moved above its May highs last week but its RSI reading failed to register a higher reading than May.

The combination of not being “out of the woods” with respect to resistance in the 5,995-6,000 zone could signal a mild pullback, with the ascending 20-day moving average, currently at 5,900, a first level of potential support.     

Other levels of potential SPX support include the 2024 close at 5,882 and the area between 5,783 and 5,800, or the Election Day close in November 2024 and its 200-day moving average.

“The 10-day, buy-to-open put/call volume ratio on SPX components… is currently turning higher from a level indicative of extreme optimism. The recent low in this ratio marked short-term peaks for the SPX on multiple occasions during the past couple of years…, short interest on SPX components continues to build, with the SPX still in a longer-term uptrend. In fact, it rose nearly 3% in the first half of May and is up 33% year to date, with the SPX roughly flat for the year.”

            -Monday Morning Outlook, June 2, 2025

The sentiment indicator that is waving the most caution remains the 10-day buy (to open) put/call volume ratio SPX components. As mentioned last week, it continues to turn higher from a low level and such action in this ratio has tended to precede weaker market environments, which is a risk to the bull case.

But with the increased put buying relative to call buying occurring as the SPX moves higher, the implications signal caution (yellow flag) at this time with the SPX trading in an area of potential resistance but also not experiencing major technical deterioration.  Should the SPX retreat below key support areas, the red flag will be waving as bears exert more control.

Not to be lost in the sentiment discussion is the put activity on the SPY that was predominant last week, which we like to see as contrarians if SPY traders are fighting the trend. And the shorts remain active, with short interest at multi-year highs with the SPX only about 2.5% below its all-time high, but trading near the high end of a volatile chop since early December. High short interest represents future buying power, with potential squeeze situations increasing during rallies.

Todd Salamone is Schaeffer's Senior V.P. of Research

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