MRVL – One day after ebullient share price action and call-buying activity sparked talk of an imminent takeover or a buoyant earnings surprise, chipmaker Marvell Technology tacked on another 3% gain to $11.33 as the buyout scuttle continues to stick. Once again it’s the call traders in the catbird seat, with calls outmoving puts by nearly 10 to 1 in afternoon trading. While the brunt of yesterday’s volume involved buying in March 10 calls, today we’re seeing heavy traffic one strike higher at the March 12.50 mark, where the 45-cent premium has attracted buyers as well as sellers looking to take a 12% profit from yesterday’s levels. While this second day of gains makes it tempting to give credence to the takeover talk, the level of fresh selling in April 12.50 calls combined with selling in May 15 calls and buying in 12.50 puts suggests that the party in its share price may not last much longer.

NVTL – Shares in Novatel Wireless, the maker of wireless PC cards and multimedia application products for cell phones for both Verizon and Sprint, plummeted more than 23% today to $10.63 – a fresh 52-week low. Following this week’s moves by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile to offer fixed-rate monthly plans to consumers, Novatel issued Q1 guidance well below street expectations. Novatel executives said the initiatives by wireless service providers, believed by many to be the opening salvos in a cataclysmic price-war for the telecom industry, might carry “modest impact” as service providers seek to consolidate vendors. The guidance all but eclipsed higher Q4 earnings from the company. The news propelled option volume in Novatel to 8 times the daily average, as the value of the March 12.50 put ballooned some 200%. It’s here that the brunt of today’s volume is occurring, with the $2.00 premium attracting mostly sellers who may feel that the reaction to Novatel’s earnings was disproportionately bearish.

RIMM – Research in Motion was singing a different tune in the premarket, however. Shares in the Blackberry maker gained 9% to $107.04 after its Q4 new subscriber numbers bested the market’s consensus expectation by 20%. The news propelled options in RIMM to a volume of more than 83,000 lots in the first 90 minutes of the market, but the positioning here is surprisingly reticent- perhaps in light of the newly ambivalent outlook for the wireless telecom market - with puts outmoving calls by a factor of 1.3. It’s noteworthy that at least in the case of the March 106.625 puts, the positioning here was freshly bought, as traders may have been enticed by the 50% decline in premium to position for a quick retracement after today.

MSFT –This morning’s news that Microsoft was planning a non-Yahoo!-related major corporate announcement put a bee in the market’s bonnet early in the session.