Today's Options Market Update

Stocks Claw Back After Credit-Fueled Sell Off

October 17, 2025 Joe Mazzola

Stocks are skittish but up from overnight losses after Thursday's regional bank-related drop. Several banks topped earnings estimates today and China and the U.S. plan to talk.

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Bank earnings took on new importance today after credit concerns sent regional bank shares down 6% Thursday and spooked the market two weeks before Halloween. Stocks clawed back from their worst overnight losses after several regional banks reported solid results and CNBC reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will speak with his Chinese counterpart today on trade. Recent bankruptcies of two firms serving the auto industry raised questions about banks' lending practices, leading to double-digit drops yesterday for shares of two banks that confirmed exposure to fraudulent loans.

Ally Financial (ALLY), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), and Regions Financial (RF) all easily topped analysts' earnings and revenue estimates this morning and saw their shares rise in pre-market trading, easing some fears. Still, their executives will likely face questions about loans as well as the general credit environment. In early 2023, the entire market suffered a blow from several regional bank failures.

Banking concerns arose at a time when "speculative froth" has developed in the market, said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Schwab, on CNBC's "Closing Bell" Thursday. "When you have that speculative froth and then you have sort of a bigger picture potential issue, those two can sometimes collide and cause an increase in volatility," she said, adding that much of the "froth" isn't in the mega-cap stocks but more in the Russell 2000^® Index (RUT), which posted a fresh all-time high earlier this week. Mega caps are mostly lower this morning.

Source: Schwab Center for Financial Research

Morning Rush

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield (TNX) is higher by 2 bps to 4.00%.

The U.S. Dollar Index ($DXY) is slightly higher to 98.41.

The CBOE Volatility Index^® (VIX) is lower by 7.60% to 23.39.

WTI Crude Oil (/CL) is down by 0.24% to $57.32/barrel.

Bitcoin (BTC) is lower by 1.68%, trading at $106,625.

Ethereum (ETH) is dropping by 2.00% today to $3,802.

Today's Bullish Activity

Shares of American Express Co. (AXP + $20.18 to $343.30) are up over 6.00% today after the credit card company reported earnings that beat expectations and raised its full-year guidance. American Express generated $421 billion in billed business, or transaction volume on credit cards and other products issued by Amex, for Q3, exceeding the expectations for $415.2. The firm also raised the lower end of its full-year guidance, with revenue now expected to grow 9% to 10% and earnings likely to total $15.20 to $15.50 a share.

American Express also announced that initial demand for its new Platinum card exceeded the firm's predictions, with U.S. Platinum account acquisitions doubling from pre-refresh levels, Chief Executive Officer Steve Squeri said in a statement Friday. It's the "strongest start we've ever seen with a refresh," per Bloomberg. American Express tends to serve the higher end of the credit market, which at least from this report, appears to be in good condition.

Option trading in AXP currently stands at 61,121 contracts. Volume for calls is outpacing puts 1.5:1. Leading the way are the following trades, expirations, and strikes:

October 17th, 2025, 340.00 call accounted for 4,211 contracts; open interest is 2,500 contracts.
October 17th, 2025, 350.00 call accounted for 4,021 contracts; open interest is 3,320 contracts.
October 24th, 2025, 350.00 call accounted for 2,278 contracts; open interest is 644 contracts.

New 52-week highs (72 new highs today): Rekor Systems Inc. (REKR + $0.53 to $3.13), Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD + $5.92 to $123.77), CVS Corp. (CVS + $076 to $82.13), Virnetx Holding Corp. (VHC + $7.00 to $24.00)

Notable Call Activity

Unusual call activity is noted today in Vizla Silver Corp. (VZLA - $0.38 to $4.49), as call volume currently stands at 8,765 contracts, 46x the average daily volume and 40x the put volume. Activity is greatest in the April 17th, 2026, expiration month where the 5.00 strike calls have traded over 7,716 contracts, primarily on the sell side. Traders have sold the 5.00 strike calls through multiple block trades at an average price of $0.93 when the bid/ask was $0.90 x $1.00. We believe this represents either new positioning or an addition to prior short call positions, given the open interest of 4,955 contracts (suggesting neutral to bearish intent). This could be a fade of the recent rally, as shares of VZLA are down over 7.00% today after reaching a 52-week high price of $5.07 during yesterday's trading.

Another name exhibiting unusual activity today is Expand Energy Corp. (EXE + $1.24 to $99.83), as call volume has spiked to 27,594 contracts in morning trading, 210x daily average. Most of the volume is in the November 21st, 2025, expiration, where a large call vertical traded 13,500 times (totaling 27,000 contracts). This call vertical was part of a package trade involving the 110.00/120.00 call strikes and the 90.00 put strike. Traders sold 6,750 of the 90.00 strike puts to help finance the purchase of 13,500 110.00/120.00 call verticals. The cost of the package was approximately a $0.03 debit. We know this represents new positioning, given the collective open interest of 750 contracts (suggesting bullish intent). Shares of EXE are trying to rebound today after falling over 10% in the past two weeks.

Today's Bearish Activity

Shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO - $2.25 to $53.84) are down over 4.00% today after President Donald Trump said the price of the diabetes drug Ozempic could come down to just $150 a month. Per Bloomberg, Trump told reporters that the cost of the drug will soon be "much lower" than the current U.S. list price of roughly $1,000 for a month's supply. Trump also proclaimed the White House will negotiate to lower prices for weight-loss drugs. This could lead to a big hit for Novo and its competitor Eli Lilly, which dominate a market expected to top $95 billion by 2030. Shares of NVO are already down over 55% from their 52-week high price of $119.07.

Option trading in NVO currently stands at 84,352 contracts in morning trading, on pace for 3x the daily average, with calls slightly outpacing puts. Leading the way are the following trades, expirations, and strikes:

October 17th, 2025, 53.00 put accounted for 4,938 contracts; open interest is 10,084 contracts.
November 21st, 2025, 35.00 put accounted for 3,259 contracts; open interest is 4,844 contracts.
October 17th, 2025, 57.00 call accounted for 2,264 contracts; open interest is 1,178 contracts.

New 52-week lows (88 new lows today): Sable Offshore Corp. (SOC - $1.62 to $11.50), American Rebel Holdings (AREB - $1.42 to $2.14), Xerox Corp. (XRX - $0.07 to $3.05), Taoping Inc. (TAOP - $0.73 to $2.11)

Notable Put Activity

There is unusual put activity today in Zions Bancorp (ZION + $1.83 to $48.74). This activity equates to over 12,549 put contracts, 6x average daily put volume. More than a third of the activity can be attributed to the October 17th, 2025, expiration month, specifically at the 47.50 strike. Trade flow has been two-sided, as today's range for ZION shares has been between $47.77 - $50.04, following yesterday's plunge on news the company was a victim of fraud on loans to funds that invest in distressed commercial mortgages. Open interest was 1,129 contracts, so we know these trades represent new positions. Shares of ZION broke below their 200-day SMA price of $52.31 yesterday and are down over 17% in the past month.

Unusual activity has also been detected in Lightpath Technologies Inc. (LPTH - $0.17 to $7.57), as put volume stands at 10,217 contracts in morning trading, 26x average daily volume. Traders are rolling out and down their short October 17th, 2025 7.50 strike puts to the December 19th, 2025, 5.00 put strike for a credit of $0.16. Over 5,000 of these put diagonals have already occurred through multiple block trades. Traders may roll out and down their short put positions if they believe a sell-off may be overdone, or if they would prefer to take delivery of the shares at a lower strike price. In this instance that would be the 5.00 strike. Either way, this trade is neutral to bullish in nature.

Gauging Volatility

The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX + 2.96 to 23.60) has been on both sides of the unchanged line today (intraday range is 19.85-24.18), as equity markets are lower across the board around the midday mark (DJI - 294, SPX - 47, COMP - 149). VIX option volume is above average today at 748,122 contracts, which puts the index at the #8 spot on the "Top Volume by Underlying" list. The volume put/call ratio is currently 0.83, but the highest volume contract is the November 19th 18.50 put (volume is 60,141 vs. open interest of 26,640).

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