3:55 (Dow Jones) A sign of high hopes ahead of Intel's (INTC) earnings report this afternoon: The number of short-term outstanding calls far outweighed the puts as bullish investors placed their bets (or the bears covered their short bets). At $17.64, Intel stock is up 13.3% this month. Its at-the-money January 17.50 calls has 103,844 contracts outstanding Tuesday, about twice the 51,989 January 17.50 puts outstanding. The open interest for the just out-of-the-money January 20 calls is 119,402 contracts, compared with 47,835 contracts for the just out-of-the-money January 15 puts. That's quite a lot of bullish expectations the earnings will have to live up to. (KT)
