Jefferies Group Climbs Back From the Depths; Puts Active

Shares of Jefferies Group

are lower on the session by 6.19%, currently trading at $11.51. JEF touched an intra-day low of $9.79 before catching a high-volume rally. Prior to its association with the MF Global debacle, the stock had been trading largely lower anyway. Despite a pop above the 50-day moving average, shares were sold down hard and are now trading near a 52-week low. The stock is seeing so much volume, though, (5.3x the 10-day daily average) that this very well could be the bottom. Options traders are focusing on puts today. So far, 36,000 puts have traded versus only 8,000 calls. Only 44% of the put volume has been purchases on the offer. The bulk of the volume is coming in the front month on every strike ($10.00 is the highest volume strike across all months). Jefferies Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries operate as securities and investment banking firm. The principal operating subsidiary of the company is Jefferies & Company, Inc. The principal international operating subsidiary of the company is Jefferies International Limited.