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Newswire briefs, filings, valuation notes, options flow and technical charts — organized as a market front page instead of a raw archive.

Options positioning watch: HOOD — 2026-07-31 (0 DTE).

Put/call volume ratio: 0.42; put/call OI ratio: 0.63. Calls traded 53,875 contracts versus 22,687 puts. The nearest ATM straddle around $87.00 prices an approximate ±$0.98 move, or 1.1% of spot, through expiry. Near-OTM IV skew proxy: puts above calls by 1.6 v…

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Tickers appearing most often in the latest published notes.

HOOD1UBER1UNH1LLY1HD1COST1WMT1MDT1PG1AXTI1GILD1TSLA1TJX1ETN1

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U.S. Stocks Open Higher, Turn Lower as Volatile July Nears End

U.S. stocks opened higher Friday but turned lower as volatile July neared its end. A stock surge of 14% briefly lifted the market, while strong results also boosted a group of companies benefiting from the artificial-intelligence boom. At 10:14 a.m. New York t…

Stifel cuts Alnylam price target to $318, maintains buy rating

Investment firm Stifel recently lowered its price target for biopharmaceutical company Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to $318 from $444 while maintaining a buy rating. The cut came as Alnylam reported its second-quarter 2026 results. The company's shares fell 28.31%…

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Options positioning watch: HOOD — 2026-07-31 (0 DTE).

Put/call volume ratio: 0.42; put/call OI ratio: 0.63. Calls traded 53,875 contracts versus 22,687 puts. The nearest ATM straddle around $87.00 prices an approximate ±$0.98 move, or 1.1% of spot, through expiry. Near-OTM IV skew proxy: puts above calls by 1.6 v…

$HOOD

Options positioning watch: UBER — 2026-07-31 (0 DTE).

Put/call volume ratio: 0.91; put/call OI ratio: 1.09. Calls traded 6,640 contracts versus 6,060 puts. The nearest ATM straddle around $70.00 prices an approximate ±$0.36 move, or 0.5% of spot, through expiry. Near-OTM IV skew proxy: calls above puts by 7.0 vol…

$UBER

Options positioning watch: UNH — 2026-07-31 (0 DTE).

Put/call volume ratio: 0.54; put/call OI ratio: 0.76. Calls traded 6,710 contracts versus 3,623 puts. The nearest ATM straddle around $417.50 prices an approximate ±$2.19 move, or 0.5% of spot, through expiry. Near-OTM IV skew proxy: puts above calls by 2.7 vo…

$UNH

Options positioning watch: LLY — 2026-07-31 (0 DTE).

Put/call volume ratio: 2.49; put/call OI ratio: 2.70. Calls traded 4,978 contracts versus 12,402 puts. Near-OTM IV skew proxy: puts above calls by 9.5 volatility points. Anomaly screen: put $1,110.00: 1,406 volume, 5.0x vol/OI. Read-through: put volume is mate…

$LLY

Options positioning watch: HD — 2026-07-31 (0 DTE).

Put/call volume ratio: 1.51; put/call OI ratio: 0.49. Calls traded 1,320 contracts versus 1,992 puts. Near-OTM IV skew proxy: puts above calls by 7.3 volatility points. Read-through: put volume is materially heavier than call volume; near-OTM puts carry a nota…

$HD

Options positioning watch: COST — 2026-07-31 (0 DTE).

Put/call volume ratio: 1.00; put/call OI ratio: 1.42. Calls traded 6,002 contracts versus 6,010 puts. Near-OTM IV skew proxy: puts above calls by 1.7 volatility points. Read-through: put/call volume is relatively balanced. This describes positioning, not trade…

$COST

Options positioning watch: WMT — 2026-07-31 (0 DTE).

Put/call volume ratio: 0.38; put/call OI ratio: 0.63. Calls traded 23,685 contracts versus 8,995 puts. Near-OTM IV skew proxy: puts above calls by 7.0 volatility points. Anomaly screen: call $112.00: 12,531 volume, 4.8x vol/OI; put $110.00: 4,702 volume, 2.0x…

$WMT

MDT market-structure snapshot

Latest close on July 31, 2026: $85.69 (-0.0% on the latest daily bar). HMA21 / HMA55: $85.78 / $84.42. 200DMA: $90.11. Relative volume: 0.43x the 20-day average. Latest comparable filing period: 2026 FY ending 2026-04-24; filed 2026-06-18. Comparable growth: r…

$MDT

PG market-structure snapshot

Latest close on July 31, 2026: $143.63 (-0.2% on the latest daily bar). HMA21 / HMA55: $146.45 / $148.57. 200DMA: $148.04. Relative volume: 0.51x the 20-day average. Latest comparable filing period: 2026 Q3 ending 2026-03-31; filed 2026-04-24. Comparable growt…

$PG