United States Steel stock is fresh off 52-week highs
United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) was last seen trading flat at $31.81. The shares have been pulling back from their Oct. 12, one-year high of $33.65, and are today eyeing their fourth-straight close below their 20-day moving average. The equity added 47% over the past 12 months, however, and became popular with options bulls in the last couple of weeks.
In fact, X is on Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of stocks with the highest weekly options volume in the last two weeks. Per White's data, 225,783 calls and 107,469 puts were traded in the past 10 days, with the 10/25 33-strike call standing out as the most popular contract.
For additional context, the stock's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.63 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) stands higher than 92% of annual readings. This means calls have been getting picked up at a much quicker-than-usual clip.
Despite X's price action, the brokerage bunch remains bearish, with six of seven firms in coverage sporting a tepid "hold" or worse. What's more, short interest makes up 5.9% of the stock's available float. Should any of this pessimism start to unwind, the equity could resume its rally.