ABK, MBI – Early morning news reports suggest that bond insurers MBIA and Ambac may be becoming more disposed to the idea of splitting their municipal bond units from their toxic, CDO-exposed structured finance divisions . A plan to this effect was first floated early this week by activist shareholder William Ackman, who has been shorting bond insurers. Initial response to the plan from MBIA and Ambac was cool, as it was believed that splitting the companies would amount to little more than a concession of defeat, rewarding Ackman’s own bearish bets. With no firm plan for a bond-insurer bailout in place, however, market pragmatists are suggesting that a split is more or less inevitable. Earlier today, CNBC reported that officials at both bond insurers are beginning to tinker with the scenario of possible downgrades of the bond insurers by Moody’s S&P and Fitch, and what the loss of a triple-A rating would mean in terms of competition with higher-rated companies, such as the initiative launched by Warren Buffett. Bearing all this in mind, we were interested to see option traders in both insurers recalibrate bullish positions in the March and May contracts. With shares in Ambac trading 7.5% lower at $8.54 today, we observed heavy buying at the March 10 call strike, which may have represented closing purchases given the 24% discount in premiums, or could be traders looking to position ahead of an imminent ratings announcement. Calls bought at the May $10 strike, meanwhile, were indeed fresh positions, bought for $1.65.
In MBIA, meanwhile, a similar dynamic emerged. With shares down 5.8% to $11.20, the 46,000-plus options trading in the bond insurer made it one of the most active tickers on our platform, with March 12.50 calls trading nearly 10,000 times for $1.18 – down 25% from yesterday’s value owing to the decline in share price. New positions were entered in the May 11 calls for $2.38.
INTC – Earlier this week it emerged that chip giant Intel has been subpoenaed by the New York State Attorney General’s office in an antitrust probe similar to one underway with the European Commission, which charges Intel with using unfair market practices to muscle its rival AMD from the European market. The European probe escalated earlier this month with a raid on Intel’s German headquarters. Shares in Intel are down 3%, more than twice the decline on the broader Nasdaq index today, and we surmise that this latest expansion in its antitrust saga may be driving the heavy buying interest in Intel’s March 20 puts. These calls are being bought at around 93 cents apiece, while March calls at strikes of 20 and above are attracting two way traffic.
