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Investing

Short Interest In Banks Plunges

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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The short interest in most large banks fell very sharply for the period ending May 29, an indication that traders believe that TARP repayments and ongoing strong earnings mean the fate of American financial firms will continue to improve.

 

Shares sold short in Bank of America (BAC) dropped 40% to 199.5 million shares. The short interest in BBT (BBT) dropped 30% to 39.9 million. Shares short in US Bancorp (USB) were down 20% to 63.9 million. The short interest in Wells Fargo (WFC) dropped 11% to 107.7 million. Shares short in Goldman Sachs (GS) dropped 24% to 12.4 million and the short interest in American Express (AXP) was down 8% to 42.2 million.

Short sellers made mixed bets on tech. The short interest in Cisco (CSCO) dropped 14% to 44 million shares. Shares short in Dell (DELL) dropped 10% to 40.1 million. The short interest in Brocade (BRCD) was down 12% to 15.7 million shares.

Shorts added to their position in Nvidia (NVDA) where shares short rose 18% to 41.8 million shares. Share short in Yahoo! (YHOO were up 10% to 57 million. shares. Shares sold short in Sandisk (SNDK) were up 20% to 13.6 million. Shares sold short in Adobe (ADBE) were up 13% to 17.7 million. Shares sold short in AMD (AMD) were up 11% to 69 million.

Among other widely held stocks, the short interest in Ford (F) was down 16% to 115.8 million. Shares short in GE (GE) fell 4% to 150.5 million. Shares short in Merck (MRK) were up 15% to 113.9 million. The short interest in Nokia (NOK) rose 14% to 37.6 million.

Data from NYSE and NASDAQ

Douglas A. McIntyre

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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