Tag: Yahoo Finance

Goldman Sees U.S. Election Concerns Flash in Options Market

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. options market is showing increasing investor concern about a stock-market sell-off next year, driven at least partially by the looming presidential election, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.“As investors consider the outcome of the election, the distribution of S&P 500 levels implied by the options market at year-end is wide,” strategists including David Kostin wrote in a note Monday. While options pricing currently implies a 22% probability the S&P 500 ends next year above 3,400 -- an 8% gain -- it also shows a 28% chance the index finishes below 2,600, a 17% slump, they said.A gauge of demand for downside protection known as skew, which rises when bearish put options become more expensive than bullish calls, has climbed above its historical average for one-year maturities, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Recent weeks have seen a number of prominent investors including Paul Tudor Jones and Leon Cooperman...