Sprint Nextel (S) reported this morning that it paid off an outstanding loan worth $1 billion on its $4.5 billion revolving credit facility. As a result, the wireless company no longer has an outstanding balance on its revolving credit facility. At the end of the third quarter, Sprint had $5.9 billion on hand in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, plus $1.6 billion in borrowing capacity under its revolving bank credit facility.

In other Sprint news this morning, Sprint shares were upped from "neutral" to "outperform" at Credit Suisse. Analyst Jonathan Chaplin set his price target at $6, asserting that the company will benefit from cost cutting, stronger sales of prepaid service, and improved customer retention trends. Sprint's stock settled Friday at $3.10, so Chaplin's price target implies expected upside of nearly 94%.

Shares of E*Trade Financial (NASDAQ: ETFC) caught a boost this morning on reports that Citadel Investment Group LLC, the online broker's largest stock and bond holder, has scrapped its plan to unload 120 million shares over the next three months. The size of the planned sale represented about 10% of the hedge fund's investment in ETFC.

"Citadel believes that the termination of the plan at this time is in the best interests of E*Trade and all of its stakeholders," said the firm in a statement. The massive sale, first announced on Aug. 11, was due to commence today, but Citadel says that no shares have been sold under the plan.

The shares of Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) surged this afternoon after the regional bank said it expects to report a first-quarter profit. In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Chairman and CEO Dowd Ritter attributed the unexpectedly profitable quarter to recent strength in new account openings and customer deposit growth.

If Wall Street seems shocked by the news, it's because analysts were predicting Regions to swallow a quarterly loss of about $290 million, or 42 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters. Plus, with nearly 5% of the equity's float sold short, it seems that many investors were also betting on the bank to report gloomy earnings.

BEA Systems (NASDAQ: BEAS) September call volume & volatility Up on Icahn position. BEAS, a leading supplier of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and middle-ware software, is recently up .50 to $13.27. BEAS has market cap of $5.1 billion. Dow Jones reported Carl Icahn owns 33.4 million shares of BEAS stock including 16.2 million options. BEAS September option implied volatility is at 58; October is at 40; above its 26-week average of 38 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Macy's (NYSE: M) is recently up .90 to $30.25 on renewed takeover chatter. M is expected to report EPS on November 14. M September 30 straddle is priced at $2. M October option implied volatility of 50 is above a level of 47 from 9/13/07 and above its 14-week average of 38 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Juniper Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) -- volatility and call volume Elevated on unconfirmed Speculation. JNPR, a provider of Internet infrastructure solutions to Internet service providers and other telecommunication services providers, is recently up $0.58 to $25.75 on renewed and unconfirmed takeover chatter. JNPR is scheduled to report EPS in mid July. JNPR call option volume of 6,716 contracts compares to put volume of 2,312 contracts. JNPR July option implied volatility is at 41 & August is at 40, above its 26-week average of 36 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

Jeffries Group Inc. (NYSE: JEF) -- volatility and volume Elevated on renewed and unconfirmed speculation. JEF is recently up $0.73 to $27.71. JEF has been mentioned frequently as a takeover target over the last three months. JEF July option implied volatility of 48 is above its 26-week average of 41 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Option volume leaders today are: Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO).

Daily Option Update is provided by Stock Options Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.