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On the tenth anniversary of the tech bubble of 2000, short sellers aggressively dropped their bets against hardware, software and internet companies. Figures are from February 28.
The short interest in Apple (AAPL) fell 15% to 17.3 million. Shares short in Microsoft (MSFT) were down 5% to 53 million. The short interest in Amazon (AMZN) fell 10% to 10.4 million. Shares short in Micron (MU) were down 17% to 51.5 million. Shares short in Cisco (CSCO) dropped 8% to 48.1 million. The short interest in Symantec (SYMC) dropped 14% to 23.9 million. Shares short in RF Micro (RFMD) dropped 14% to 20.7 million shares. Read More
Nortel Networks Corp. (NRTLQ) is just about wound down in its bankruptcy. The company’s operations have effectively all been sold off, at extreme discounts. In this bankruptcy there is one last sale or group of sales still remaining. Nortel’s vast patent portfolio is the last piece of the puzzle. The ultimate value of the patents remains up for debate, but there are more than 3,000 patents and some feel the value may be around $1 billion.
This earnings season has been a troubled period for most great companies. We finally started to see real earnings beats and finally started getting guidance raised out of many of the big technology stocks. Yet the new market bias and very stretched valuations played havoc with most of the companies, and investors sold off most of the companies regardless of the news. But the big selling came on strong in many of the cult stocks with low share prices, large floats, large shareholder bases, and very active trading.
Reverse discrimination is alive and well among large corporations which offer access to women’s businesses that results in a high volume of commerce for female-controlled firms. The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council “Top Corporations” program honors companies for “world-class programs that create level playing fields for women’s business enterprises to compete for corporate contracts.”
In the land of telecom and communications equipment and services, perhaps Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is only the second worst company of the last decade of the old one-stop leaders. At least it has Nortel to point to as the worst. Alcatel-Lucent has been a disaster for shareholders and today’s latest earnings report is not going to make matters much better. Back when the Alcatel and Lucent merger was announced there was a huge concern over the advantages that the French company would get because of that massive patent portfolio of Bell Labs. But it seems nothing can help Alcatel-Lucent. Things sound good on the surface because of a small profit, but there is very little good news in the earnings report.
Markets in Asia rose modestly.
The recent headlines over the short interest showed a rise on the NYSE and NASDAQ. In terms of the Top 50 NYSE Jumps In Shorts, a couple key stocks stand out. For NYSE stocks, short increased their bet in Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP) as the short position rose by 8,204,236 shares and the short ratio now stands at 3.97. It appears the shorts are betting that office equipment sales are lagging or that Office Depot will struggle against its much bigger competitor Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS). The result of this bet will be understood in January as Office Depot announces how it fared through year-end holiday sales. Another interesting increase in short interest was Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) which saw its short position increase by 5,305,141 shares with a short ratio of 4.04 in spite of a very low stock price of $3.26. A move up by a $1 could hit the shorts for a loss of 31%. Good Morning Wall St. has a 
