Among firms that had IPOs recently, the short interest in Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) rose 35% to 56.6 million. Shares sold short in Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) rose 19% to 20.7 million. Both companies have been under attack because many investors believe that they cannot sustain sales in a market in which the number of competitors is multiplying quickly.

Among Web 1.0 firms, the short interest in Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) was up 23% to 25.6 million. Although the firm has been able to make progress with its Asian assets, its core portal business is in trouble, and it recently replaced another CEO. Shares short in eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) rose 19% to 16.6 million.

Among other tech stocks, the short interest in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which continues to struggle in the critical mobile industry, rose 25% to 87 million. Shares sold short in badly wounded Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) rose 18% to 53.4 million. The short interest in Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) rose 8% to 35.4 million shares.

Other companies with weak prospects hit by short sellers included Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK); shares sold short rose 27% to 85.2 million. There are questions about the CEO’s practice of investing individually in some of the firm’s drilling projects. Shares short in Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) rose 20% to 116.7 million. The third-largest wireless company continues to lose ground to AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless.

Short interest in major banks also rose as worries about Europe’s finances and new regulations pushed share prices down. Shares sold short in Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) rose 6% to 150.7 million. The short interest in Citigroup (NYSE: C) rose 16% to 35.5 million. Shares sold short in Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) moved higher by 11% to 36 million.

Douglas A. McIntyre

The admission of a $2 billion loss due to improper hedging losses was one thing from J.P. Morgan.  The problem is that Jamie Dimon signaled that the losses could widen out further in the months ahead.  Ultimately the bank will be out of those trades, but these are apparently illiquid enough that the bank cannot simply say “market-sell order” to another trading desk.  J.P. Morgan Chase also has exposure to Europe and elsewhere at a time when BRIC growth has been slowing substantially and while Europe is in meltdown mode.

Wells Fargo is just more of a traditional bank that makes its money off of deposit management, client advisory services, brokerage, loans, and mortgages.  The bank also still trades at a premium to its book value of $25.45 as of March 31, 2012. Its share price is $31.37 after a 1.4% gain today and the 52-week range is $22.58 to $34.59.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) has now joined Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) in trading at substantial discounts to their prior book values.  As we have said over and over, book value is the ceiling right now rather than the floor. When investors believe that book values will be dropping or that a bank’s earnings power is drained, does book value even matter?  It is not as though the banks could auction off those assets and realize that price overnight.

The book value of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was $47.60 at the end of the first quarter.  That compares to $46.59 the previous quarter and compares to $43.34 in the first quarter of 2011.  J.P. Morgan shares are down 2.6% at $32.62 after two broker downgrades today.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) reported that its stated book value is $19.83 per share, and its tangible book value was $12.87 per share.  BofA trades at $6.88 after a 2% drop today.

Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) reported that its book value was $61.90 on the stated value methodology and its tangible book value was $50.90 at the end of March.  Citi trades at $26.18 after a 0.6% gain today.

Jamie Dimon might still be the strongest CEO in the room, but as of now it is Wells Fargo that is the safest of the big money-center banks.

JON C. OGG

Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) Cut to Sell at UBS.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) Cut to Market Underperform at JMP Securities.

Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY) Cut to Hold at BB&T.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) Raised to Buy at Argus.

Donaldson Company. Inc. (NYSE: DCI) Reiterated Outperform and raised estimates at Credit Suisse.

Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) Cut to Market Underperform at JMP Securities.

Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF) Reiterated Buy at Argus.

Kirkland’s, Inc. (NASDAQ: KIRK) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) Cut to Market Underperform at JMP Securities.

Myriad Genetics (NASDAQ: MYGN) Raised to Outperform at Leerink Swann.

Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN) Started as Neutral with $25 target at Goldman Sachs.

Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) Raised to Buy at Societe Generale.

Robert Half International (NYSE: RHI) named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST) Cut to Hold at Canaccord Genuity.

Safeway (NYSE: SWY) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.

Splunk, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) Started as Overweight at Barclays.

TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX) Cut to Hold at Canaccord Genuity.

Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ: ZBRA) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.

If you enjoyed the top analyst upgrades and downgrades, you can join our free email newsletter that includes analyst summaries each morning sent right to your inbox.  We also cover top issues such as IPOs, special financial exclusives, mergers and more. Sign up in the box below.

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JON C. OGG

Some brokerage firms stop taking orders for Facebook shares. (Reuters)

Japan’s gross domestic product rises 3.5% in the first quarter, helped by consumer spending. (Reuters)

President Obama may force more harsh rules on banks after the JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) loss. (Reuters)

Pinterest raises $100 million. (WSJ)

Some Facebook shareholders will sell $3.5 billion of stock in the initial public offering. The firms include Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). (WSJ)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) may launch an iPhone with a larger screen. (WSJ)

Verizon Wireless will cut unlimited data plans when customers upgrade to 4G LTE. (WSJ)

LG Electronics releases its own series of new smartphones. (WSJ)

The Mortgage Bankers Association releases data that shows the percentage of homes in foreclosure has not fallen much in the past two years. (WSJ)

The number of loans in China has fallen, which may hurt the economy. (WSJ)

Japan’s economy grows an annualized 4.1% in the quarter ended in March. (WSJ)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) changes the way sites are measured as it tries to cut sites that try to “game” its system. (WSJ)

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) has been tardy in opening new, small stores, which is hurting it in competition with Target (NYSE: TGT) and other retailers. (WSJ)

Coty will use Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and JP Morgan for its IPO. (WSJ)

JP Morgan’s trading loss could rise 50%. (NYT)

Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) releases a DVR that allows viewers to skip ads. (NYT)

The Federal Reserve says it is worried about the eurozone crisis and its effect on the U.S. economy. (FT)

Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) says natural gas prices could surge by 2015 due to demand. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

The carnage is particularly severe in a few sectors.

News that JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) fired its chief investment officer reminded investors of how badly risk is managed at large banks. JPM has taken a $2 billion write-off its London traders took. JPM is down 2.81% to $35.90.Back of America (NYSE: BAC) is down 2% on similar sentiment about risk to $7.39, and Citigroup (NYSE: C) is down 2%. Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is down 3.4%. Its debt will probably be downgraded this summer, according to a number of sources.

Several tech stock were hurt by worry of a slowing economy in Europe, and perhaps Asia. These include Symantac (NASDAQ: SYMC), Micron (NASDAQ: MU), Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR), and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). The sell off in Clearwire is more because of debt than overseas exposure.

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is only up 1.4% on news it sacked and replaced its CEO. Markets probably assume that its trouble goes well beyond a replacement of management. Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) fired its chairman and founder because he helped cover-up a relationship the electronics firm’s CEO has with another employee. Best Buy shares are up less than 1%

Douglas A. McIntyre

The Thursday disclosure of a loss of about $2 billion due to egregious failures in risk management now puts J.P. Morgan Chase in the same league as Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C).  Jamie Dimon has been the most vocal bank executive out there and this is not exactly going to help Dimon in any of his future arguments against more and more bank regulations.

Simon Johnson at MIT’s Sloan School of Management is shown here calling for the possibility of a resignation of Jamie Dimon.  Johnson went on to note that if any other company lost this much then the person responsible would be forced to resign.  He did note that it is not going to happen in banking where regulators move to oust Jamie Dimon.  Johnson is one of the voices calling for the break-up of the big banks

Dimon noted that this trade did not violate the Volcker Rule but it did violate the Dimon Principle.  What happens when your hedges are wrong hedges?  The loss could cost another $1 billion over the next quarter or two as well as the trade was called flawed synthetic credit derivatives which are volatile.

So, back to this call for a Dimon resignation.  Dimon remains one of the top executives out there in banking and in corporate America.  He was recently cleared to lift the common stock dividend and to buy back stock.  Dimon always said that he would buy stock back when its price made sense to do.  A drop of almost 8% down to $37.60 takes this banking stock down to prices not seen since February 16, 2012.  The dividend-adjusted closing price at the end of 2011 was $32.80.

There is another call for Dimon’s role of Chairman and CEO to be split as well.  AFSCME sent out an email noting, “After JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon lost $2 Billion in risky trading, today, AFSCME issued a renewed call for the shareholders of JPM to end Dimon’s reign as Chairman and CEO and adopt an independent board chair.”  In short, the call is keep Dimon on as CEO but to bring in a new Chairman of the Board that is independent of the company.

Congressman Barney Frank (co-author of Dodd-Frank) has publicly said, “JP Morgan Chase, entirely without any help from the government has lost, in this one set of transactions, five times the amount they claim financial regulation is costing them. The argument that financial institutions do not need the new rules to help them avoid the irresponsible actions that led to the crisis of 2008 is at least $2 billion harder to make today.”

Jamie Dimon may have taken a body blow here, but the notion that this will cause his resignation seems very unlikely.  The next risk is the pending downgrade of more than 100 of the top global banks from Moody’s.

FBR was one of the firms which downgraded J.P. Morgan shares this Friday and the target was taken down to $37 from $50 previously.

JON C. OGG

24/7 Wall St. screened out selective short interest data with the latest changes from the settlement date of April 30, 2012 versus the prior April 13, 2012 in shares of the following: Alcatel Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU); Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: STD); Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC); Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS); Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN); Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND); First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR); Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR); Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN); Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI); LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD); Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX); RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH); Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM); and Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI).   Does this make for a “Short-Sell in May and go away!” theme?  The short interest changes are for the April 13 versus March 30 settlement dates, with selective color added if applicable:   Alcatel Lucent S.A. (NYSE: ALU) saw another rise in the short interest but this gain was massive by over 25% to 28.67 million shares in the short interest.  Based on its earnings botch, the short sellers made some real money here.

Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: STD) is not one of our usual short interest names but investors are back to betting against Spain and the PIIGS all over again now that austerity measures are being fought publicly.  The prior gain was a whopping 214% gain in the short interest to 55.7 million shares and the newest gain was only 2.5% to 57.1 million shares.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is back to seeing a rise in the short interest after a prior drop.  Short sellers lifted the short interest by 9.9% to 142.3 million shares.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) saw a small increase ion its short interest, which you know helped to exacerbate that pop from the Microsoft deal while activist investors press on here.  The short interest rose another 3.7% to 19.768 million shares.

The forgiveness will of course not apply to all mortgages but the letters are targeted at over 200,000 ‘potential candidates’ and these letters should start arriving in the mail this week.  Just be advised that the report also shows that most of the letters will be mailed by the third quarter of this year.

The bank estimates average monthly savings of 30 percent on mortgage payments of customers who qualify for this program. Today’s news also shows that Bank of America actually began making principal reduction offers under the program guidelines in back in March.  This effort was targeted at homeowners who were already in the modification review process and about 5,000 trial modification offers have been mailed so far with a potential savings of supposedly $700 million.

Another key is that homeowners are required to make at least three timely payments before the modification can become permanent.  Here are some of the criteria: the mortgage is more than the property is worth today; was 60 days or more behind on payments on January 31, 2012; has a contractual monthly payment (principal, interest, property taxes, hazard insurance, and association fees) totaling more than 25% of gross household income; and has a loan that is owned and serviced by Bank of America (or serviced for another investor that has given the bank delegated authority to do such modifications).

What investors and Joe Public need to take away here is that these letters will not make everyone eligible. Some of the criteria may also be ‘just outside’ of what would helped many borrowers.  It doesn’t look there are any free lunch tickets here and they are not all going to be coming out at once.

JON C. OGG

Gasoline Prices Fall

The widely followed Lundberg Survey showed that gasoline prices fell 6.75 cents to $3.8452 a gallon for the average price of regular, based on national samples. The data for was the period that ended May 4. After a brief pause, the cost of gas has begun to move lower again. It likely will continue. WTI dropped briefly below $100 last year. Most economists think that the fight over austerity in Europe will go on for months, as many nations slip further into recession. And Greece could still leave the European Union, which would likely drive it into depression. The fall-off in gross domestic product among many European nations is expected to hurt China’s export machine, which is another huge consumer of crude.

U.S. to Cut Stake in AIG

The U.S. government will cut its stake in AIG (NYSE: AIG) again. It plans to reduce its total piece of the company to 63%. The cost of the bailout to taxpayers have been calculated to be as high as $180 billion. Many experts believe that amount will never be recouped. However, Tim Massad, the U.S. Treasury assistant secretary for financial stability, said “We remain hopeful that taxpayers will ultimately recover every single dollar invested in the company, which is something few would have expected during the depths of the financial crisis.” At this point, that seems unlikely, based on the price of AIG’s stock. The Federal Reserve and Treasury supported an AIG bailout in 2008 because its huge number of relationships with other financial firms would have caused catastrophic ripples through the credit system. The Treasury will sell the stock at $30.30, about 5% below where it has recently traded. AIG may buy back some of the shares on its own.

Barclays Online Bank

Barclays, the UK-based bank, has decided to move into the U.S. online bank business. The move is a mystery, given the competition from American banks, brokers and financial advisors. Barclays believes that being in the credit card industry gives it a platform to add customers. However, competitors Citgroup (NYSE: C), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) have many more card members. The “big four” American banks also have gathered deposits for years through their branch systems. They have successfully migrated many of those customers to Internet-based retail bank platforms. Barclays has little leverage to make this initiative successful.

Douglas A. McIntyre

But, competitors Citgroup (NYSE: C), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) have many more card members. The “big four” American banks have also gathered deposits for years through their branch systems. They have successfully migrated may of those customers to internet based retail bank platforms. Barclays has not leverage to make its initiative successful.

Douglas A. McIntyre