Charles Schwab announced fourth-quarter earnings before the bell today
The shares of Charles Schwab Corp (NYSE:SCHW) aren't faring so well after the company's fourth-quarter report, down 6% at $60.42 at last glance. Though the finance name reported better-than-expected earnings of 68 cents per share, profit fell 47% amid bigger interest payments on client deposits and debt due to a jump in asset management fees.
The $60 level, a familiar line of resistance over the past year, appears to be moving in as support for today's pullback. Headed for its sixth-straight daily loss, SCHW is down 11.4% since the start of the year, and 27% since last January.
Over in the options pits so far today, 25,000 calls and 23,000 puts have been exchanged, which is six times the overall volume typically seen at this point. Expiring this week, the January 60 put is the most popular, followed by the January 65 call.
These options are well-priced at the moment, per SCHW's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 32%, which ranks in the low 12th percentile of its annual range, meaning options traders are pricing in low volatility expectations. The equity tends to outperform these expectations too, per its Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 89 out of 100.