Russia is targeting the social media name amid its invasion of Ukraine
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has brought even more volatility to Wall Street, with all three major indexes registering their second-straight month in the red for February. As investors look to spare their portfolios from additional losses, they may want to consider avoiding Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR). In fact, the social media concern is already getting targeted by Russia's state communications regulator, which slowed down Twitter's traffic on computers over what it called fake posts about its "special operation" in Ukraine. In addition, Benchmark initiated coverage of TWTR earlier today with a "hold" rating.
Despite being up 0.2% at $35.63 this afternoon, Twitter stock also just showed up on Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of 25 worst performing S&P 500 Index (SPX) stocks for March, making now an opportune time to check in on the stock's technical setup.
According White's data, which features SPX stocks with the worst returns this month over the last 10 years, TWTR averaged a loss of 8.8%, and finished higher just twice. Twitter also stands out as the second-worst name on the list, and only social media company.
Twitter stock has been testing a floor at the $32 mark since January. The 30-day moving average has been guiding the shares lower since late October, when the security's rally was turned down at the $68.50 level. Year-over-year, TWTR sports a 54.3% deficit.
Options traders are already catching on. Twitter stock's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.22 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) stands higher than all other readings from the last year. This means that puts are being picked up at a much quicker-than-usual clip.