Today's Options Market Update

Stocks Bounce Back from Yesterday’s Sell-Off

February 24, 2026 Nathan Peterson

Stocks are recovering from yesterday’s AI disruption/tariff-driven pullback as investors look ahead to several key earnings reports, including earnings from Nvidia tomorrow after the close.

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After a brutal Monday marked by trade and AI uncertainty, key earnings vie for attention starting with Home Depot (HD). The home improvement giant rallied on better-than-expected profit growth. The rest of the market also appeared refreshed and enjoyed light early gains as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced a major AI deal with Meta Platforms (META).

While stocks delivered some "turnaround Tuesday" vibes early today, economic and geopolitical worries continued to drive a so-called "flight to safety" that has the U.S. 10-year Treasury note yield (TNX:CGI) trading near its lowest point since late November. While falling yields can provide a tailwind for stocks, this drop appeared associated with recent debt, AI, and trade worries that pushed down stocks. Today features a 2-year Treasury note auction, which might get close attention considering weak results at the last auction. If demand stays muted when results arrive this afternoon, yields could deliver their own "turnaround Tuesday."

Volatility spiked and stocks retreated Monday as AI substitution fears and "sell America" sentiment received fresh salt from President Trump's new global tariffs that hurt trade-sensitive sectors including tech and discretionary. Tariffs were originally expected to be 15% but took effect at 10%. A host of Federal Reserve speakers arrives today, starting with Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee's hawkish missive this morning pushing back on rate cut hopes and prioritizing the inflation fight.

Source: Schwab Center for Financial Research

Morning Rush

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield (TNX) is higher by ~1 basis points to 4.04%.

The U.S. Dollar Index ($DXY) is higher by 0.18 to 97.88.

WTI Crude Oil (/CL) is lower by 0.69% to $65.85/barrel.

Gold prices have traded in a range of $5,109.50-5,269.40 and were last seen trading lower by ~1.29% to $5,158.00/oz.

Natural Gas prices for March futures have traded in a range of $2.92-3.014 today and were last seen trading lower by 0.87% to $2.959.

Bitcoin (BTC) is lower by ~1.18% over the last 24 hours to $63,870.18 today.

Today's Bullish Activity

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD + $14.12 to $210.72) are gapping up this morning after the chip maker agreed to a long-term strategic partnership with Meta Platforms. Under the terms of the deal, Meta will buy six gigawatts of computing power from AMD and AMD agreed to give Meta a performance-based warrant for up to 160 million AMD shares. The agreement expands on the company’s existing relationship to align AMD’s GPU and CPU silicon, systems and software roadmaps. Calls are outpacing puts ~3:2 with the February 27^th 215.00 call being the highest volume contract (volume is 31,667).

Also trading to the upside this morning is Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM + $5.88 to $146.29) after Loop Capital upgraded the chip maker to “Buy” from “Hold” and raised their price target on the stock to $185.00 from $140.00. Loop Capital analyst Gary Mobley believes Qualcomm will diversify its revenue stream as it showcases progress in the company’s non-smartphone revenue growth and provide insights into its data center roadmap at the next analyst day meeting. Calls are outnumbering puts ~4:3 with the March 20^th 150.00 call being the highest volume contract (volume is 1,719).

New 52-week highs (125 new highs today): CME Group Inc. (CME + $1.49 to $315.49), GE Vernova Inc. (GEV + $29.12 to $860.82), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ + $2.27 to $246.81)

Notable Call Activity

Some unusual call activity (~100:1 calls over puts) is being seen in EV charging solutions provider ChargePoint Holdings Inc. (CHPT + $0.22 to $6.23) as option traders primarily target the February 27^th 6.50 call. Volume on this contract is 2,322 versus open interest of 154, so we know that the volume primarily represents fresh positioning. The bulk of the transactions consisted of various-sized blocks that were bought at various times for between $0.17-0.20 each, which suggests bullish intent. CHPT is scheduled to report Q4 earnings next Wednesday (March 4^th) after the bell, so this positioning does not capture the potential impact of that event.

Today's Bearish Activity

Shares of Dillard’s Inc. (DDS - $66.10 to $580.08) are gapping down below the 100-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) this morning after the department store operator reported Q4 EPS of $13.05 ($2.44 beat) on Q4 revenue of $1.96B (below the $2.03B FactSet consensus estimate) as Q4 comparable-store sales fell 1.0% year-over-year. Dillard’s Q4 EPS included a pretax gain of $20.4M related to the sale of five properties along with federal and state income tax benefits of $35.0M due to a deduction related to that portion of the special dividend of $30.00 per share. Options are not currently listed on this stock.

Also trading to the downside today is Planet Fitness Inc. (PLNT - $8.06 to $82.69) after the fitness center operator beat quarterly estimates but issued soft guidance earlier this morning. The company posted Q4 adjusted EPS of $0.83 ($0.04 beat) on Q4 revenue of $376.3M (above the $367.9M expected). Looking ahead, PLNT guided full-year 2026 (FY26) adjusted EPS to a range of $3.35-3.38 (below the $3.54 consensus estimate) and FY26 sales to $1.443B (slightly below the $1.459B analysts had modeled). Calls and puts are trading roughly even with the April 17^th 87.50 call being the highest volume contract (volume is 133).

New 52-week lows (142 new lows today): Blue Owl Capital Inc. (OWL - $0.11 to $10.33), Hims & Hers Health Inc. (HIMS - $0.91 to $14.60), Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO - $0.97 to $38.66)

Notable Put Activity

Some unusual put activity (~22:1 puts over calls) is being seen in Colgate Palmolive Co. (CL + $0.02 to $97.12) which is primarily driven by a couple of large blocks that traded around the same time on the April 17^th 90.00 put - a 4,100 contract block was bought for $0.83 and a 3,210 contract block was bought for $0.84 when the bid/ask spread was $0.50 x $0.95 (open interest is 24). We know that these blocks are new positions based on the open interest figure, and we can assume that the intent is bearish in nature since the trades took place above the midpoint of the bid/ask spread.

Volume Signals

WEX Inc. (WEX - $1.27 to $150.39): Option volume is running at ~66x the daily average on this commerce platform (offering fleet payment solutions, transaction processing, information management services, etc.) which is primarily being driven by a couple of large blocks that simultaneously traded on the April 17^th expiration earlier this morning:

145.00 put (open interest is 0): A 2,000 contract block was bought for $5.67 when the bid/ask spread was $4.60 x $6.40.
130.00 put (open interest is 0): A 2,000 contract block was sold for $1.92 when the bid/ask spread was $0.30 x $3.90.

We know that these blocks are new positions based on the respective open interest figures, and it appears that a $15.00-wide bear put spread was established for a net debit of $3.75 (x 2K contracts x 100 multiplier, excluding commissions). The positioning suggests that the block trader believes that WEX will close below the break-even price of $141.25 at expiration.

nLIGHT Inc. (LASR + $5.60 to $60.30): Option volume is running at ~36x the daily average on this semiconductor and fiber laser maker as option traders primarily target the March 20^th 65.00 call. Volume on this contract is 11,909 versus open interest of 181, so we know that the volume primarily represents fresh positioning. The bulk of the transactions consisted of various-sized blocks that were bought at various times for between $7.20-7.50 each, which suggests bullish intent.

PROCEPT BioRobotics Corp. (PRCT + $0.40 to $27.76): Option volume is running at ~20x the daily average on this maker of surgical robotics which is primarily driven by a 4,500 contract block that was bought on the March 20^th 30.00 call for $1.75 when the bid/ask spread was $1.50 x $1.85 (open interest is 2,629). We know that this block is a new position based on the open interest figure, and we can assume that the intent is bullish in nature since the trade took place above the midpoint of the bid/ask spread.

Gauging Volatility

The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX + 2.08 to 21.17) has been on both sides of the unchanged line today (the intraday range is 19.59-22.08), as equity markets are higher across the board around the midday mark (DJI + 342, SPX + 42, $COMP + 214). VIX option volume is below average today at 276,202 contracts, and calls are outnumbering puts better than 2:1 so far today.

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