The major market indices had a mixed ending as Wall Street continued to be cautious ahead of the weekend. Nevertheless, S&P 500 shrugged off a three-week, losing the streak to end last week at a new all-time weekly high.
While Greece continues to be the cynosure of attention and with Greek banks finally opening, Wall Street’s focus is tending towards the corporate season. Regarding options activity, volume continues to be above average for the summer season with calls again preferred.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)
According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is experimenting with a new e-commerce feature that could lead to the company directly competing with Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).
The new feature lets Facebook users purchase from small-to-mid-sized enterprises through the company’s Facebook pages. Earlier attempts at Facebook’s storefronts haven’t met with adequate success.
The company is of the opinion that users will accept the changes on social media sites. Facebook stock rose by 4% after the report. The shares reached new all-time highs nearly touching $95.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Both Google’s Class A and C shares made their way into Friday’s most active options listing after Google led Wall Street’s second-quarter earnings estimates. Google had a profit of $6.99 per share, well beyond estimated earnings of $6.75 per share. Incidentally, this is the first time after 2013, which the company has surpassed expectations. Revenue was around $17.73 billion.
Regarding options activity volume rose to around 161,000 and 213,000 contracts respectively for GOOG and GOOGL. Calls were the preferred investment vehicle and made up 65% of GOOG’s total volume and 69% of GOOGL’s volume.
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)
At a press conference, Tesla Motors showcased a new set of options for its Model S line, raising investor hopes that the company sales targets will be met. The newly announced options include 90kWh battery made for longer life and increased mileage, a rear-wheel-drive only model which comes at $5000 less than the earlier standard Model S. There is also good acceleration so that the Model S can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.8 seconds.
While TSLA options popularity came down at the end of the week, the stock had more than 191,000 contracts exchanged.Also, calls made up 67% of the day’s total volume.
