Is this a turning point in the streaming wars?
Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) has jumped 1.1% this morning to trade at $111.41 amid Netflix's (NFLX) post-earnings sell-off, as some traders may now be paying more attention to Disney's push into streaming. This puts DIS stock on pace for a seventh straight win, which would be its longest winning streak in at least two years, and the shares are set for their highest close since January. However, the equity was seemingly rejected again by the $113 area, site of its highs from December and January, and its 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) of 72.2 signals overbought conditions.
In any case, call volume is accelerated today, with more than 20,000 of the contracts crossing so far -- almost five times the number of puts on the tape and already nearing the average daily volume. Most popular is the July 110 call, where the largest trade of 2,000 contracts crossed simultaneously with a same-size block of weekly 7/27 111-strike calls. This speculator either initiated some type of spread trade with the calls, or is rolling out and up a bullish options trade.
Rounding out the sentiment picture on the Dow component, most analysts have been hesitant to get behind it. By the numbers, 13 brokerage firms are in coverage on Walt Disney shares, and nine of them have tepid "hold" ratings in place. Meanwhile, short interest had been on the rise in the past year since bottoming at a decade-plus low last July, but these bears may now be in cover mode, as the last reporting period saw a 17.3% decline in short interest on DIS.