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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ibexx who wrote (91165)	1/4/2001 5:06:55 AM
From: Ibexx	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Something else is brewing besides the rate cut? - U.S. Options-Qualcomm vols up as calls bought CHICAGO, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Implied volatility rose on Wednesday in options on digital wireless communications products provider Qualcomm Inc. <QCOM.O> as out-of-the-money calls were bought, likely on the chance the stock could regain recently lost ground. "Vols have increased dramatically in the last few days due to the market volatility...." said Ali Saadat, lead market maker with LETCO LLC at the Pacific Exchange. Implied vols rose to above 100 percent, up some 20 percent from the levels frequented before the stock's wide price swings of the last few days, he said. The stock's one-month historical volatility was about 117 percent, while average implied vols bracketing the at-the-money strike have stood near 90 percent during the last month, according to Track Data figures. Saadat noted that a customer on Wednesday purchased the January 100 calls, where combined interexchange volume totaled nearly 21,000 on open interest of 35,487 before midday. Of those, 12,181 were executed on the PCX alone. "A customer is buying them," he said of the January 100 calls. "We just think it's because the stock's gotten beat up so much" that the calls are a "cheap" way to speculate on a possible recovery in the stock. The January 100 calls traded up 1/4 at 13/16. Those January 100 calls helped underpin Qualcomm options volume, and by midday on Wednesday a total of some 41,500 options had changed hands, comprised of about 31,400 calls and 10,100 puts. That compared to average daily options turnover during the last month of about 40,200 contracts, using Track Data. The California-based company is expected to report first quarter earnings during the week of Jan. 25, with the First Call/Thomson Financial consensus forecast of analysts at 28 cents per share. Qualcomm stock has swung broadly since it probed above $107 early last month. On Dec. 29, the stock closed at $82-3/16 only to gyrate wildly on Jan. 2 and end sharply lower at $70-7/8. At midday Wednesday, Qualcomm was up $3 at $73-7/8 on Nasdaq market volume of 11.1 million shares. _______ Ibexx