Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) shares are struggling for direction today, trading flat near $420.10, after the company's July revenue came in at $14.5 billion, reflecting a 45% year-over-year growth. The primary Nvidia (NVDA) supplier also raised its yearly outlook more than 40%, while reports surfaced that the tech concern was in talks to supply 300,000 Maia chips for Microsoft (MSFT).
Despite this morning's whipsaw price action to either side of the aisle, the equity is mostly maintaining its rebound off its late-July pullback to $375, consolidating at the $420 area. The 40-day moving average is also keeping a tight lid on shares, though TSM sports a 38% year-to-date gain.
Bulls were circling ahead of today's update. TSM sports a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 1.73 on the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). This ratio stands higher than 72% of all other readings from the past year, hinting at a healthier-than-usual appetite for bullish bets of late.
Options are looking affordable, too. This is per TSM's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 39%, which stands higher than just 29% of all other readings from the past year, implying near-term option traders are pricing in relatively low volatility expectations.
