Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $101 from $95
The shares of steel name Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) are down 4.1% to trade at $102.20 at last check, brushing off a bull note from Morgan Stanley. The firm currently carries an "equal weight" rating on NUE, but raised its price target to $101 from $95, which still represents a minor downside to the stock's current price.
Meanwhile, options bears are laying it on thick today, with NUE's put volume running at quadruple its intraday average. So far, 24,000 puts have crossed the tape, in comparison to 10,000 calls. The June 100 put is the most popular by far, with new positions being opened there.
The options pits were already more bearish than usual leading up to today, though calls were still winning out on an absolute basis. This is per NUE's 50-day put/call volume ratio of 0.44 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which stands higher than 96% of readings from the past year.
The 30-day moving average, which helped guide Nucor stock to its June 1 record high of $110.96, has so far kept today's losses in check. Though today's drop is the first time the stock has fallen below the $105 level since those highs, the equity is still up an impressive 92.2% year-to-date.
