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

Volatility Index S&P 500 Options-VIX up .27 to 10.59.

New Century Financial Corp. NYSE: NEW implied volatility bid up as NEW sells off on restatement. New Century Fin'l, a real estate investment trust, providing mortgage products to borrowers nationwide, is recently down $8.72 to $21.45. New Century Fin'l announced it will have to restate operating results for the first three quarters of 2006. Merrill Lynch downgraded NEW to Sell, Jeffries lowered to Hold & Friedman Billings downgraded NEW to Underperform. NEW March option implied volatility of 69 is above its 26-week average of 42 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risks.

H&R Block-NYSE:HRB April option implied volatility & put volume elevated on hedging. H&R Block is recently down $.30 to $24.54. Soleil said on 2/7/07 "we rate H&R Block Buy; $29 price target. We believe Block is close to entraining sale of the company (whole or in parts)." H&R Block call option volume of 2,945 contracts compares to put volume of 42,299 contracts. HRB April option implied volatility of 33 is above its 26-week average of 26 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price fluctuations.

Option volume leaders today were: Cisco-(NASDAQ-CSCO), Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM), Bristol Meyers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) and Apple Computer (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Everybody's launching today, especially Yahoo!. Not only did the internet company unveil a brand new home page today (it's Ajax-ified!), but they've also refreshed Flickr, the über-popular photo sharing site. I don't know from Ajax, but I'm wondering if this utilizes Ajax, as well -- many of the functionalities are strikingly similar. The lovely drop-down hover menus are the biggest difference from my perspective, and Pranam Kolari at ebiquity says, "better use of home page real estate, and navigation." He also asks, is del.icio.us next?

It's definitely not perfect yet, I've been uploading photos this afternoon and one of my upload screens showed a kaleidoscope of broken tables. But it is very pretty, for sure, and the market seems to be reserving judgment: the stock is barely down in after hours trading from a six-cent decline today. YHOO closed at $30.97 on below-average volume.