Stocks to Watch With Heavy Options Trading: AMZN, AAPL, GM, ORCL, SPY, C

Stocks continue to build onto their gains in afternoon trading as each of the major indices are up more than 0.5%. The market rebounded today after yesterday’s decline thanks to better than expected economic data. With about an hour left in the trading day the Dow is up 81 points, the Nasdaq is up 26 points and the S&P 500 is up 9 points.

Options Trading

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is up 1.36% this afternoon at $183.59. AMZN has traded 3.7 million shares so far today and trades 6.1 million shares a day on average. Weekly March 9 AMZN options are seeing decent volume today with over 10,000 contracts traded at strike prices $185. Calls at $185 have traded over 7,000 contracts and are up $0.57 at $1.60. Puts have traded more than 3,000 contracts and are down $2.66 at $2.44.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is up 0.03% today at $530.35. AAPL has traded 19.4 million shares so far today, 4 million shares more than its daily average. Investors are watching Apple closely as it unveils its latest iPad. AAPL are seeing big options volume at strike prices $530 – $545. Calls are down about $3 across each strike price, while puts have seen jumps at $340 and $345, but are falling at $330 and $335.

General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is up 1.38% this afternoon at $24.92. GM is trading light volume today with 4.5 million shares traded, it usually trades 11.7 million shares a day on average. March 9 weekly options at $25 are seeing the biggest movement today. Calls are up $0.12 at $0.36 with over 2,000 contracts traded.

Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) is up 0.69% today at $30.16. ORCL has traded 17.5 million shares traded so far today and trades 33.9 million shares a day on average. Call options at $30 for March have seen more than 2,500 contracts traded. Calls have jumped $0.12 at $0.57 this afternoon.

SPDR S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY) is up 0.61% today at $135.57. SPY has traded 94 million shares so far today and trades 154.6 million shares a day on average. SPY generally sees a lot of volume in options and today is no different. Weekly call options are up for the most part with the biggest move coming at $136. Calls at $136 have jumped $0.17 to $0.48 with nearly 21,000 contracts traded.

Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE:C) is up 3.36% today at $33.20. C has traded 25.2 million shares so far today and trades 48.5 million shares a day on average. Weekly call options have jumped more than 50% at $33 and $34. Nearly 10,000 contracts have been traded at $33 with calls up $0.33 at $0.51. At $34, 6,200 contracts have been traded with calls jumping $0.06 to $0.12.