The stock market is repeating a pattern of midmonth stumbles some analysts tie to options expiration. That dynamic could be amplified this week ahead of “quadruple witching,” the simultaneous expiration Friday of individual stock options, stock-index options, stock-index futures and single-stock futures.
Options are financial instruments that give the holder the right but not the obligation to buy, in the case of a call option, or sell, in the case of a put option, the underlying asset at a set price by a certain time.
“Almost like clockwork, over the past six months the S&P 500 has fallen in the week leading into OpEx, so the risk is we see this flow repeat and come into play this week, which could mean weakness into Friday’s expiry — although perhaps it’s all too obvious now,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone, in a Monday note. OpEx is trader slang for options expiration.
Hot Financial Stocks To Own For 2023: National Oilwell Varco, Inc.(NOV)
National Oilwell Varco, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells equipment and components used in oil and gas drilling, completion, and production; and provides oilfield services to the upstream oil and gas industry worldwide. The companys Rig Systems segment offers land rigs; offshore drilling equipment packages; and drilling rig components. This segment provides substructures, derricks, and masts; cranes; pipe lifting, racking, rotating, and assembly systems; fluid transfer technologies, such as mud pumps; pressure control equipment, such as blowout preventers; power transmission systems, such as drives and generators; and rig instrumentation and control systems. Its Rig Aftermarket segment offers spare parts; and repair and rental services, as well as technical support, field and first well support, field engineering, and customer training services. The companys Wellbore Technologies segment designs, manufactures, rents, and sells various equipment and technologies used to perform drilling operations. This segment also provides solids control and waste management equipment and services, drilling fluids, drill pipes, wired pipes, tubular inspection and coating services, instrumentation, downhole tools, and drill bits. Its Completion and Production Solutions segment offers equipment and technologies for hydraulic fracture stimulation, such as pressure pumping trucks and pumps, blenders, sanders, hydration units, injection units, flowlines, manifolds, and wellheads; well intervention, including coiled tubing units, coiled tubing, and wireline units and tools; offshore production, including composite pipe, process equipment, floating production systems, and subsea production technologies; and onshore production, including surface transfer and progressive cavity pumps, positive displacement reciprocating pumps, pressure vessels, and artificial lift systems. The company was founded in 1862 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
