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Boeing Co (NYSE: BA) shares traded higher by 4.26% on Thursday and Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL) shares gained 1.94% as the stock market experienced yet another volatile trading session.A flurry of large Boeing and Delta option trades on Thursday morning were mixed in nature, with one deep-pocketed Boeing bull making a massive bet on a sharp recovery for the stock.The Boeing, Delta Trades Benzinga Pro subscribers received 35 option alerts related to unusually large trades of Boeing and Delta options. Here are a handful of the largest: * At 9:30 a.m., a trader bought 1,000 Boeing call options with a $130 strike price expiring on May 29 at the ask price of $9.60. The trade represented a $960,000 bullish bet. * At 9:50 a.m., a trader bought 1,370 Delta put options with a $45 strike price expiring on Jan. 15, 2021 at the ask price of $23. The trade represented a bearish bet worth $3.15 million. * At 10:10 a.m., a trader bought 542 Boeing call options with a $145 strike price expiring on May 29 near the ask price at $4.558. The trade represented a $247,043 bullish bet. * At 10:48 a.m., a trader bought 462 Boeing call options with a $150 strike price expiring on Jan. 15, 2021 near the ask price at $27. The trade represented a bullish bet worth $1.24 million.Of the 35 total large Boeing and Delta option trades on Tuesday morning, 20 were calls that were purchased at or near the ask or puts sold at or near the bid, trades typically seen as bullish. The remaining 13 trades were calls sold at or the near the bid or puts purchases at or near the ask, trades typically seen as bearish.Why It's Important Even traders who stick exclusively to stocks often monitor option market activity closely for unusually large trades. Given the relative complexity of the options market, large options traders are typically considered to be more sophisticated than the average stock trader.Many of these large options traders are wealthy individuals or institutions who may have unique information or theses related to the underlying stock.Unfortunately, stock traders often use the options market to hedge against their larger stock positions, and there's no surefire way to determine if an options trade is a standalone position or a hedge. In this case, given the relatively large sizes of the largest Boeing and Delta trades, they could potentially represent institutional hedges.Travel Stocks In Limbo Boeing and Delta shares are each down more than 55% year-to-date, as the COVID-19 outbreak has decimated the travel industry. Back in March, both companies announced they were suspending their buybacks and dividends.But while the outbreak rages on, travel stocks have gotten a boost in recent days thanks to cautiously optimistic signs the economy is opening back up and potential progress on developing a COVID-19 vaccine.On Thursday, Credit Suisse initiated coverage of battered travel stocks Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE: RCL) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE: NCLH). In addition, RBC initiated coverage of Boeing with an Outperform rating.Although the near-term outlook for travel stocks will continue to be difficult, analysts seem to see the downturn as fully priced into the stocks. Instead, they are focusing more on a potential bullish long-term risk-reward skew.Bullish sentiment among StockTwits messages mentioning Boeing was at 80.9% on Thursday, its highest level of 2020. BA Chart by TradingView new TradingView.widget( { "width": 680, "height": 423, "symbol": "NYSE:BA", "interval": "D", "timezone": "Etc/UTC", "theme": "light", "style": "1", "locale": "en", "toolbar_bg": "f1f3f6", "enable_publishing": false, "allow_symbol_change": true, "container_id": "tradingview_a50c0" } ); Benzinga's Take While the majority of the large option trades in Boeing and Delta on Thursday morning were bullish, the largest trade was the $3.1 million bearish Delta put purchase. The break-even price for those puts is $22, suggesting at least 5.1% downside for Delta shares over the next eight months.Do you agree with this take? Email feedback@benzinga.com with your thoughts.Related Links:JPMorgan Option Trader Bets M On Downside Ahead How To Read And Trade An Option AlertSee more from Benzinga * Q1 13F Roundup: How Buffett, Einhorn, Ackman And Others Adjusted Their Portfolios * Bartstool's Dave Portnoy Breaks Down About The Importance Of Diversification * Here's How Large Boeing Option Traders Are Reacting To Abysmal Monthly Orders(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Facebook’s (FB) universe is getting even bigger. On Tuesday, the social media colossus unveiled Facebook Shops, elbowing its way to the front of the e-commerce queue. The platform will act as a digital shopfront where businesses of all sizes will be able to sell their products. Customers will be able to make purchases directly through either Facebook or Instagram. “We think Facebook Shop in a simplistic bull case could drive up to as much as a $30 billion revenue opportunity, across a combination of take-rate driven transactional and advertising revenue,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Lloyd Walmsley. Facebook hopes the move will help alleviate some of the pressure on small businesses as a result of COVID-19. The new platform significantly expands on last year’s rollout of Instagram Checkout. Looking specifically at Checkout, Walmsley originally estimated the 130 million users of Instagram shopping tags would increase to just under 400 million by 2021. The analyst believes the new endeavor will “drive this activity across 2.6 billion core Facebook MAUs and 3.0 billion MAU across the Family of apps,” translating to roughly three times the addressable audience initially estimated. Adding to the good news, the new service will include numerous features like Instagram Shop, where users will be able to find and purchase products in Instagram Explore, as well as live shopping features (taking a page out of Alibaba’s playbook) and the ability to connect loyalty programs (currently in test mode). Facebook will also work with other brands such as Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce to help businesses operate online. Walmsley expects Facebook shares to pop over the coming weeks, reminding investors that following the launch of Instagram Checkout, the stock surged by 17% over a one-month period. “FB shares could similarly outperform over the next month as investors anticipate a nice contribution from eCommerce more broadly across the platform,” he concluded. Unsurprisingly, Facebook has widespread Street support. 3 Hold ratings are crushed by 33 Buys, presenting the social media king with a Strong Buy consensus rating. (See Facebook stock analysis on TipRanks) Read more: * Top Analyst Sees Over 35% Upside in These 3 Tech Stocks * 3 Big Dividend Stocks Yielding Over 7%; BMO Says ‘Buy’

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Chief Executive Officer Antonio Neri flagged concerns about cautious consumers and supply constraints during a post-earnings call. Beginning July 1, through the remainder of fiscal year 2020, the base salaries of the CEO and officers at the executive vice president level will be reduced by 25%, HPE said. HPE will now focus on investments and realign its workforce to evolve with its supply chain and real estate strategies, as well as right-size the business.

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The latest U.S. government action against China’s Huawei takes direct aim the company’s HiSilicon chip division–a business that in a few short years has become central to China’s ambitions in semiconductor technology but will now lose access to tools that are central to its success. Huawei Technologies Co Ltd for its part denounced the U.S. allegations and called the new measures “arbitrary and pernicious.” Established in 2004, HiSilicon develops chips mostly for Huawei, and for most of its existence has been an afterthought in a global chip business dominated by U.S., Korean and Japanese companies.

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(Bloomberg) — Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. reported declining sales, and said it would “realign the workforce” and cut costs over the next three years, signaling that the stumbling global economy has dented demand for servers.Revenue fell 16% to $6 billion in the period ended April 30, the San Jose, California-based company said Thursday in a statement. Analysts, on average, expected $6.19 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit, excluding some items, was 22 cents a share, compared with an average estimate of 28 cents.The company said it was putting in place a plan to cut costs, with a goal of $1 billion in savings by the end of fiscal 2022. Measures will including simplifying its product portfolio and supply chain as well as changing customer support, marketing efforts and real estate strategies, HPE said in the statement.“It definitely was a tough quarter by every measure and I’m disappointed in the performance, but I don’t see this as an indication of our capabilities,” Chief Executive Officer Antonio Neri said in an interview. “This was clearly driven by supply chain disruptions because of coronavirus,” including a shortage of chip components from China, disrupted logistics and social-distancing guidelines in some regions.Neri said he expected HPE’s sales to “recover sequentially,” with the third quarter posting better results than the second and the fourth improving further. Still, he said, it’s unknown just how bad the economic downturn will be.HPE withdrew its annual profit forecast last month, citing uncertainty from the Covid-19 pandemic, which has forced millions of people to stay home to prevent the spread of the virus.Neri has struggled to spark sales growth at the computing and networking company, which has seen year-over-year revenue decline in all but one quarter since the company split from HP Inc. in 2015. Competing with larger hardware rival Dell Technologies Inc. and dominant cloud-computing companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., HPE has hitched its future to edge computing, which distributes data-processing capacity closer to customers rather than at centralized data centers. More immediately, the company has sought to support sales by offering $2 billion of financing for clients trying to preserve cash in the pandemic.Under the company’s plan to reduce expenses, senior executives including Neri will take 20% to 25% cuts to their base salaries and the board reduced each director’s cash retainer by 25% from July to the end of the fiscal year. The hardware maker will consolidate offices where possible, Neri said. He expects more than half of HPE’s employees won’t return to the office full time, instead dropping in for meetings and collaboration when necessary.The number of employees who may lose their jobs under the cost-cutting plan is undetermined, Neri said. The company will spend the next few months working out the details and evaluating how much it can save in other areas.In the fiscal second quarter, HPE reported falling revenue in all of its business segments. Server sales dropped 20% to $2.64 billion and storage hardware declined 18%. Neri said the company saw “steady” demand from large enterprises while small and mid-sized businesses struggled. HPE wasn’t able to produce as much data-center hardware as clients were ordering, he said.HPE’s shares dropped about 5% in extended trading after closing at $10.36 in New York. The stock has dropped 35% this year.(Updates with comments from CEO in the fourth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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