JD.com shares are down after Walmart confirmed the sale of its stake in the company

JD.com Inc (NASDAQ:JD) The stock is falling today after Walmart (WMT) confirmed that it is increasing its stake in the China-based E-commerce giant to focus on other things, such as the China businesses of Walmart China and Sam’s Club. JD was last down 7% at USD 26.23, having previously traded at USD 25.85.

This week, JD has already largely recouped last week’s 13.2% gain, its biggest weekly gain since April. The stock is back below all notable moving averages between the 20- and 320-day trend lines and is down 8.7% year-to-date.

Options traders are speaking out following the news. So far, 88,000 calls and 35,000 puts have been traded – seven times the total options volume normally seen at this time. The January 2025 25-strike put is the most popular, followed by the 8/23 27.50-strike weekly call, with new positions being opened on the latter.

Options traders were also bullish on JD ahead of today. The stock’s 50-day call/put volume ratio of 5.74 on the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) is above 94% of its levels over the past year, showing that calls are being taken much faster than usual.