Perhaps believing that the worst is over for some of America’s most troubled companies, or fearing a year-end rally that could lift all ships, short sellers abandoned stocks is some of the financially weakest public traded corporations.
Source: By Jeff Ooi., posted to LensaMalaysia.com via Wikimedia Commons
The best example of the trend is the sharp drop in short interest in JCPenney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP), a company many analysts believe will implode since Ron Johnson of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) took the helm early this year. Shares short in the retailer fell more than 7% to 55.3 million.
Another retail firm that continues to struggle is huge drug store chain CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS). Shares short dropped 21% to 13 million. Among battered retailers, the short interest in Supervalu Inc. (NYSE: SVU) dropped 4% to 84.7 million.
Among the tech companies that reported the worst results for the third quarter is troubled Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX), which has a line of products that Wall St. fears are no longer relevant. Shares short in Xerox dropped 18% to 34.1 million.
Shares short in Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR), which needs new financing, dropped 22 million to 51 million. The short interest in Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA), one of the recent failed Web 2.0 IPOs, dropped 34% to 12.8 million.
Despite deep trouble in the video game business, shares short in Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) fell 18% to 14 million. Shares short in Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) dropped 7% to 21.7 million as it works to stay relevant in the smartphone and portable computing market.
Among some of the most widely held techs, short interest rose. It was up 10% in Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) to 200.8 million shares. Intel also has faced challenges as PC sales have slowed. Shares short in Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) rose 7% to 99.2 million. Redmond also faces the challenge of slow PC sales, as well as its fight to move into the mobile market. Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), which continues to try to diversify out of PCs, had a short interest increase of 6.6% to 51.7 million. Shares sold short in Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) rose 17% to 64.6 million.
And shares in what may be the most closely watched company traded on any market — Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) — posted a 21% rise to 88 million, one more “no confidence” vote.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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