Newmont Corporation (NYSE:NEM) stock is down 9.4% to trade at $96.70 at last glance, the gold miner sinking alongside gold prices after the Federal Reserve yesterday kept interest rates steady and signaled just one rate cut in 2026. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the economy was not making as much progress on inflation as the central bank had hoped, with the U.S.-Iran war threatening to make matters worse. Persistent inflation fears and red-hot oil prices are also contributing to the profit taking.
Today's losses are pushing NEM to the negative side of breakeven for 2026 but still up 103% year over year. The stock is trading at its lowest level since December, on track for its worst day since April 2024. The shares are now 27.8% off their Jan. 29, record high of $134.88, and have breached their 126-day moving average for the first time since April.
Though calls still outpace puts on an overall basis, options traders lean pessimistic, per the stock's 10-day put/call volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) that ranks in the 97th percentile of its annual range. Echoing this, the security's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.37 sits higher than 92% of readings from the past year.
Drilling down to today's options activity, 3,431 puts have already crossed the tape, volume that is double the amount typically seen at this point. The most active contract by far is the March 100 put.
