PacWest Bancorp is soaring after optimistic updates
PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW) is one of the few bank stocks staging a rebound today. The crisis surrounding the bank sector continues to concern Wall Street, but there's cautious optimism following UBS' (UBS) forced takeover of Credit Suisse (CS) over the weekend.
At last glance, PACW was up 21.7% at $11.29. The firm announced that its deposit movements have stabilized since the "elevated" withdrawals following SVB's (SIVB) collapse, and Piper Sandler stated that they have "increased confidence that PACW can make it through this liquidity crunch now that it has enough cash to cover any additional run-off in uninsured deposits."
Still, despite today's surge, PacWest stock is down roughly 60% since the start of the month. The shares have created some distance from their Mar. 13 record low of $5.00, but are still far below all notable short- and long-term moving averages. The equity has also landed on the short sell restricted (SSR) list amid the volatility.
Options bulls appear to be betting on the rebound, with 13,000 calls across the tape so far -- seven times the intraday average amount -- in comparison to 4,091 puts. The weekly 3/24 15-strike call is the most popular, followed by the 13-strike call in the same weekly series.