Short Sellers Trash Financials And Autos (FNM)(FRE)(YHOO)(JAVA)(JNPR)(NOK)(QCOM)(GM)(F)(ETFC)(WB)(BAC)(ABK)(LEH)(MBI)

Regulators may be trying to keep short sellers out of a few financial stocks, but that is not keeping large bets against most other stocks from rising.

While some of the shorts may have moved on from the "protected" stocks, as of July 15, the short interest in Fannie Mae (FNM) rose 15.7 million shares to 154.4 million. Shares short in Freddie Mac were up 23.1 million to 105.9 million.

The assault on banks and brokerages continued through the middle of the month. Shares short in Wachovia (WB) moved up 25.4 million to 260.6 million. Shares short in Bank of America (BAC) were up 32.3 million. Short interest in Ambac (ABK) rose 25.1 million to 99.3 million. Shares short in Lehman (LEH) rose 15 million to 85.3 million. MBIA’s (MBI) short interest rose 11.9 million to 80.5 million.

Regardless of the government’s take on shorting large financials, the bet against their prices is still proving to be right. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were both down about 18% today. Wachovia and Washington Mutual were both off over 12%.

Short sellers were right in smelling trouble at E*Trade (ETFC)  Shares sold short in the stock moved up 5.1 million to 132.7 million.

Short sellers also saw more trouble coming in the auto industry. Shares short in Ford (F) were up 13.7 million to 330.7 million.

GM’s (GM) short interest rose 9 million to 161.9 million.

Short sellers may have gotten mixed results by jumping out of tech and telecom stocks. Shares short in TI (TXN) drop 9.7 million to 28.7 million. TI reported miserable earnings. Share short in AT&T (T) dropped 8.3 million to 37 million. Shorts got out of EMC (EMC) just in time. Short interest in the stock fell 8 million to 61.6 million.

Short sellers got burned on Qualcomm (QCOM) by adding 6.6 million shares to their 33.3 million share position ahead of the company’s settlement with Nokia (NOK).

Shares short in Apple (AAPL) rose 6 million to 25.1 million ahead of the company’s weak forecast.

In other big tech, shorts cut their positions in Sun (JAVA) by 5 million to 55.6 million, in Yahoo! (YHOO) by 5.1 million to 48.2 million, and in Juniper (JNPR) by 5.5 million to 26.4 million.

Douglas A. McIntyre