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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis R. Duke who wrote (40743)	3/24/1998 2:10:00 PM
From: Jan Crawley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Dennis, Would you please see Pat's post #46739; do you know if Asnd is going to be presented? I am holding all my shares. Thanks

To: Dennis R. Duke who wrote (40743)	3/24/1998 2:44:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

ASND options busy today Options Buzz: Optimistic Options Traders Return to Big Tech Plays By Dan Colarusso Staff Reporter 3/24/98 1:33 PM ET thestreet.com Excerpt: " Ascend bounced back from a month-long slump by jumping 1 3/16 to 34 1/8 today. Options traders seemed appropriately moved by the strength and bought into the out-of-the-money calls. The April 35s traded a brisk 2,200 contracts this morning as they were priced up 1/4 ($25) to 1 1/2 ($150)." Oils, drugs, banks. Get out of the way, the techs are back. After staying pretty quiet through expiration week and being overshadowed by other sectors rotating into strength as well as triple-witching anxiety, popular technology plays are back on the radar of options traders. This morning, with the Nasdaq index sprinting higher, Dell (DELL:Nasdaq), Cisco (CSCO:Nasdaq), Compaq (CPQ:NYSE) and Ascend (ASND:Nasdaq) were back in the familiar spotlight of the options pits. With the Dow nearing 9,000, however, options traders didn't seem willing to speculate on overall strength via index options. "The index players aren't out today and we're seeing a lot of tech," said John Platt, the head options trader at Raymond James Financial. "Who wants the oils leading the market?" Platt said traders have been active selling and buying calls on tech stocks, and he said new positions are being opened in most of the key companies today. Strangely absent from the optimism has been Intel (INTC:Nasdaq), typically the busiest options on the American Stock Exchange. Cisco owned the busiest options on the Chicago Board Options Exchange as its April 65 calls showed a quick 4,700 contract volume with the stock trading at 67 1/2, up 2 13/16 on the day. The April 70 calls, deep out-of-the-money at the open, hit volume of 3,000 by just after noon. Ascend bounced back from a month-long slump by jumping 1 3/16 to 34 1/8 today. Options traders seemed appropriately moved by the strength and bought into the out-of-the-money calls. The April 35s traded a brisk 2,200 contracts this morning as they were priced up 1/4 ($25) to 1 1/2 ($150). Dell options also sprang to life as that stock rose more than 2 to 64 5/8 this morning. The April 65 and April 70 calls traded in the 2,000-contract range and rose considerably in price. It's box-making compadre Compaq, although not rising much today, traded more almost 5,000 of its at-the-money April 25 calls and 3,000 April 27 1/2 calls. In more of the "rumors that won't die" action, Merrill Lynch (MER:NYSE) calls stayed active at just above the company's 84 7/8 share price. With the stock up about 2 today, almost 1,800 April 85 calls changed hands. The giant brokerage firm is rumored to be the object of Chase Manhattan's (CMB:NYSE) affections, and speculators have been hunting up the company's options for the past week. Yesterday, Merrill April 85 and 90 calls traded more than 10,000 contracts as speculation was renewed. The company's share price was up strong until about 3:30 p.m. yesterday before sliding back to close down 7/8 for the session. Although its shares were up today, Chase options behaved like those of most M&A suitors -- they weren't doing too much. There was some volume, about 700 contracts, in its April 140 calls, which were about $4 out-of-the-money. See Also OPTIONS BUZZ ARCHIVE