Maybe there was some concern in the market that the AT&T deal with BellSouth would get pushed back again. Maybe T’s run from $22 last November to its current $35 was simply too much.

The concerns that cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable are too far ahead in voice/broadband/digital TV can’t help. And, AT&T is running behind Verizon in terms of building fiber-to-the-home to compete with cable interests.

Whatever it was, the short interest in AT&T jumped 24.6 million shares to 159.5 million, the larest short interest on the NYSE in December.

If the BellSouth merger gets pushed out much longer, that short interest could grow.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.