Bull flows were active in commodity($SPDR Gold(GLD.US)$, $Silver Trust Ishares(SLV.US)$, $Cameco Corp(CCJ.US)$), energy ($Spdr Select Sector Fund - Energy Select Sector(XLE.US)$, $Exxon Mobil Corp(XOM.US)$, $Occidental Petroleum Corp(OXY.US)$, $Marathon Oil Corp(MRO.US)$, $BP P.L.C.(BP.US)$) and some china plays ($Alibaba Group Holding Ltd(BABA.US)$, $NIO Inc.(NIO.US)$, $Futu Holdings Limited(FUTU.US)$, $Bilibili(BILI.US)$) in Tuesday's session. 

Institutional gangs doing more of the same by picking some selective stocks and protection in ETFs. A few selective names also seeing some isolated put sweeps but with a minimal level, a lot of hedging going on in ETFs, whole sweeping action is going to make it really difficult for the indices to go anywhere too far. 

Among the individuals

$Bilibili(BILI.US)$ - Bilibili option volume 3x normal as shares surge. Shares of the Chinese mobile game ADR up nearly $8, or 8%, to $102.46 last session with 30k calls trading, vs 10k puts before noon ET, and two large trades hitting the tape just after 11:22 am ET, when 1300 Jan 115 calls were bought for $1.35, followed by 718 Feb 110 calls for $6.60, both opening. Bilibili shares are up nearly $50 in the past two months, including a 22% pop following earnings on Nov 19th.

$BP P.L.C.(BP.US)$ - Bullish option flow detected in BP with 46,214 calls trading (3x expected) and implied vol increasing over 1 point to 42.72%. . The Put/Call Ratio is 0.32. Earnings are expected on 02/01. 

$Occidental Petroleum Corp(OXY.US)$ - Bullish option flow detected in Occidental Petroleum with 75,807 calls trading (1.5x expected) and implied vol increasing almost 3 points to 74.23%. . The Put/Call Ratio is 0.15. Earnings are expected on 02/25.

$Cameco Corp(CCJ.US)$ - Cameco call volume goes nuclear with stock up 8.81%. Shares of the uranium producer up $1.18, Tuesday afternoone near $14.61 with 122k contracts trading and calls leading puts 29:1 as implied volatility lifts 7 points in the January term to 62% atm and put/call skew kinks to the upside with 25 delta calls nearly 4points above puts in the 30day term. Spreads make up much of the flow.

So what's stored for January? 

• Jan. has been the strongest month on average, for US equity inflows according to Bank of America equity client flow trends(data since 2008). Jan. has seen net buying in 10 of the last 13 years. It has also been the only month besides May where clients bought both stocks and ETFs on average. 

• Private clients and hedge funds have historically led the buying in Jan., the only month in Bank of America's data history where private clients have been net buyers on average. Institutional clients have typically sold US equities in Jan.

• Which sectors typically see the strongest Jan. inflows? Financials, Tech and energy. Consumer sectors have seen the biggest outflows. 

• Buybacks typically accelerate in mid-Jan. as earnings season gets underway. Though with the drop-off in buybacks, Bank of America expectes trends to remain weak year over year versus pre-COVID.

Notable bettings toward broader market indices ETF on 1/5

Market-wide option volume of 32.0m contracts was 5% below recent average levels, with calls leading puts 7 to 4. ETF and Index products saw relatively heavy volume, while single stock flow was moderate.

Individuals breakdown by sectors (1/5 notable bets)

Most active sectors included Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Utilities while Consumer Goods and Technology were relatively light. Of the 3,668 stocks with listed options, 2,675 (73%) closed higher, and 846 (23%) lower. Among the 500 most liquid single stocks, 30day implied volatility was lower for 360 and higher for 106. Unusual total option volume was observed in $Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd(TEVA.US)$, $FuboTV Inc(FUBO.US)$, $JD.com Inc(JD.US)$, $Micron Technology Inc(MU.US)$ and $Exxon Mobil Corp(XOM.US)$.

Tech

Industrial

Consumer Cyclical

Financial

Communication Services

Healthcare

Energy

Real Estate

Basic Materials

Consumer Defensive

Utilities