With traders on edge ahead of today’ massive quad (or triple for the anal purists) witching opex, in which over $2.2 trillion in index option gamma is set to expire potentially unleashing a burst of volatility across risk assets worlds stocks were stuck just below record highs on Friday, with investors left looking for direction after digesting the U.S. Federal Reserve’s more hawkish stance (which has since been re-evaluated as bullish), while S&P futures are deathly calm with the emini trading unchanged following Thursday’ turbulent session, which saw the unwind of reflation trades resulting in a huge divergence between soaring growth (QQQ) and sliding value (IWM) stocks as markets repriced inflation expectations and as yields tumbled following Wednesday’ hawkish shock.

Some notable premarket movers:

• Adobe (ADBE) shares climb 2.7% in premarket trading as analysts raise their share price targets, saying the quarterly results from the software group were strong across the board.
• Athira Pharma (ATHA) slumps 30% after the drug developer placed CEO Leen Kawas on temporary leave amid a review related to Kawas’s doctoral research, an announcement that Stifel says is a “big surprise.”
• CAI International (CAI) shares jump 45% after Mitsubishi HC Capital agreed to buy the container leasing and management company in a $1.1 billion deal.
• Cleveland BioLabs (CBLI) shares surge 18% as its merger with Cytocom makes progress.
• Geron (GERN) surges as much as 33% in premarket trading after data from a clinical trial showed the company’s experimental drug imetelstat help bone-marrow cancer patients.

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