Facebook's platforms experienced a six-hour blackout yesterday
The shares of social media giant Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) are up 0.7% at $328.60 at last check, staging a modest comeback from yesterday's nearly 5% dip. That decline came after "60 Minutes" aired a whistleblower's interview, in which she discussed documents that alleged the social media company put profits over public safety by ignoring the negative impact of its platforms on younger users, and enabling the spread of misinformation. Separately, Facebook experienced its worst service outage in well over a decade, with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, all offline for more than six hours.
FB's options pits are bursting with activity this morning. So far, 80,000 calls and 67,000 puts have crossed the tape, which is almost double the intraday average. Most popular is the weekly 10/8 330-strike put, followed by the 335-strike call in the same series, with positions being opened at both.
A broader look shows long puts haven't been more popular of late. This is per FB's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 0.58, which stands above all other readings from the past 12 months at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX).
The last time we looked at Facebook stock, the equity pulled back from all-time highs following an earnings report. However, the shares quickly bounced back, with help from the 40-day moving average, to hit a new record high of $384.33 on Sept. 1. Now, the stock is testing its 150-day moving average, which it closed below for the first time since March during yesterday's session. Year-to-date, FB remains up 21.2%.