Employees at a Staten Island warehouse began casting their votes on wether or not to unionize last Friday
News broke earlier today that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has hired an influential Democratic pollster, Global Strategy Group, in an effort to thwart the unionizing efforts of a warehouse on Staten Island, New York. Employees at the warehouse, also known as JFK8 began casting their ballots last Friday and the vote on whether or not the location will unionize was wrapped up yesterday, with ballots being counted right now. Amazon has taken a strong stance against unionization, and it was revealed that the e-commerce giant has been working with Global Strategy Group since last last year.
The news has had little effect on the stock itself, and AMZN was last seen down 0.7% at $3,301.61. The stock staged a notable rally off its March 8, two-year low, though it ran out of steam near the $3,405 level, which has served as both rejection and support over the past couple years. AMZN is looking to turn in a slight loss for the quarter, though it's up 6.6% in the past year.
There's been a shift toward puts in the options pits. While calls are still outnumbering puts, AMZN sports a 50-day put/call volume ratio that sits higher than 96% of readings from the past 12 months at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). This means there's been an unusually healthy appetite for long puts of late.
These options can be had at a premium right now. This is per AMZN's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 27%, which stands in the 19th percentile of its annual range. In other words options players are pricing in relatively low volatility expectations at the moment. What's more, the stock tends to outperform said volatility expectations, as its Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) ranks at 86 out of a possible 100.