Puts Purchased on Varian Semiconductor

Shares of Varian Semiconductor

are lower on the session by 8.50%, currently trading at $8.40. The stock has been moving largely lower over the past three months and is currently trading below the 50-day moving average. Options traders are buying puts on the name today. A short while ago the November 2011 $50.00 put traded 1,300 times on open interest of 2,311 contracts. Overall put volume is now running at 2.75x the daily average with 82% of all puts traded being purchases on the offer. Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. is a supplier of ion implantation systems, which the company refers to as tools, used in the fabrication of integrated circuits, which it refers to as microchips or chips.