Shipping stock United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS) was downgraded to "hold" from "buy" at Deutsche Bank this morning, with the brokerage firm citing an unclear relationship with Amazon. This comes just a day after the company announced the launch of its new electric delivery van initiative. In response, the shares of UPS have fallen 0.3%, to $104.81 in early trading.
From a broader perspective, United Parcel stock has had a horrible year on the charts, shedding 11% year-to-date. The shipping concerntouched a record high of $135.53 on Jan. 18, but has since shed 22%, moving below the 200-day moving average for the first time since July.
Ahead of today's drop, data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) shows the shipping stock had a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.55, ranking in the 75th percentile of its annual range. This suggests UPS calls have been bought to open over puts at a faster-than-usual clip during the past two weeks of trading.
What's more, the UPS Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.32 ranks just four percentage points from an annual. This suggests that short-term speculators have rarely been more call-skewed toward the stock during the past 12 months.