Google Parent Attracts Investors, Speculators Betting Party Can Get Going

Volumes on call options that give the holder the right to buy Google A shares at a specified strike price are three times that of put options, which give the owner the right to sell the stock at a certain price.

The bulls awakened Monday to a Bloomberg report that Apple is in talks for a deal to use Google's Gemini artificial intelligence engine on iPhones. If a transaction is inked, the deal could seal Google's position in generative AI that's been dominated by OpenAI's ChatGPT.

As of 12:56 p.m. New York time Monday, Alphabet attracted net inflows of $244.4 million, capital trend data compiled by Moomoo showed. The inflows come after three straight months of outflows from Alphabet's stock.

The day's most active call options are those giving the holder the right to buy Google's A shares at $155 by the end of this week. Volume on those calls jumped to more than 47,000 contracts by 12:58 p.m. New York time from almost nothing last Friday. Prices, on the other hand, soared 1,333%.

Even deep-pocketed investors and speculators are jumping in on the action. At 10:03:19 a.m. Monday, a block trade for 1,500 call options that give the holder the right to buy 150,000 Google shares at $145 each by April 26 was posted. The buyer paid a premium of $1.45 million for those call options.

Another block trade was recorded a few minutes earlier. This time, the buyer paid a premium of $1.15 million for 1,000 call options that give the holder the right to buy a combined 100,000 Google shares at $147.50 each by June 21.

Still, it's unclear how long the optimism over Alphabet's prospects will last. MarketWatch reported that a new deal from Apple and Google could come under scrutiny. given that their current agreement on search engine is already being challenged by the US Department of Justice. That current deal involves Google paying Apple billions to ensure its search engine is used as the default on the web browser used in iPhones, iPads and Macbook.

After Alphabet shares climbed more than 5% Monday, nine of the 15 technical indicators tracked by Moomoo are now showing that the stock is oversold and the trend is bearish.