Shares of
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) are 0.7% higher, last seen trading at $191.28, after Reuters reported on the company's new strategy in China. According to the report, the
tech giant is combatting competition from China-based Huawei by offering aggressive discounts on its official Tmall site in the country, with 2,300 yuan, or $318, off on some iPhone models.
While options traders have yet to respond to the news, Apple stock already boasts a spot on Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of names that attracted the most weekly options volume in the last two weeks. Coming in third place, AAPL saw more than 5.7 million calls and 3.1 million puts exchanged over the last 10 days, the favorite being the weekly 5/10 185-strike call.
When looking further back, this penchant for bullish bets is nothing new. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), Apple stock sports a 50-day call/put volume ratio of 2.00 that ranks in the 86th percentile of its annual range.
Premium traders are in luck, as AAPL sports affordably priced premiums at the moment. The stock's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 17% sits in the 9th percentile of its annual range, indicating options players are pricing in low volatility expectations for the equity.
On the charts, Apple stock is extending a bull gap that followed a Wall Street Journal report that the company is developing artificial intelligence (AI) chips for Data Centers. A floor at the $189 level remains in place, helping the shares trade at their highest level since February, though they're just below their year-to-date breakeven mark. Longer-term, AAPL sports a 9.2% year-over-year lead.
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