S&P 500
7,401.00
+0.91%
Dow Jones
49,665.70
+0.19%
Nasdaq 100
29,241.00
+2.43%
Russell 2000
2,860.88
+0.82%
FTSE 100
10,263.70
+0.48%
Nikkei 225
63,767.70
+2.68%

Investing

Short Sellers Up Bets Against BP By 290%, Flee Other Weak Shares

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Invalid Image
The short interest in BP plc (NYSE: BP) rose 290% to 25.7 million shares in the period ending June 15 as traders increased their bets that the UK-based oil company will face more problems that will undermine its share price.

However, short sellers moved out of the shares in several other weak companies. The short interest in Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) dropped 28% to 76.2 million shares. Shares short in airline AMR (NYSE: AMR) were down 18% to 32 million. The short interest in beleaguered financial firm Ambac (NYSE: ABK) dropped 8% to 71.7 million shares. Shares short in Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) dropped 17% to 23.7 million. The short interest in Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW) fell 17% to 20 million. Shares short in Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) fell 13% to 32.2 million. And, shares short in Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) fell 4% to 22.9 million.

Shares sold short in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) rose 42% to 80.6 million. Shares short in Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) rose 25% to 50.4 million. The short interest in Ebay (NASDAQ: EBAY) rose 66% to 44 million. Shares sold short in Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) were up 12% to 27.8 million.

The short interest in Citigroup (NYSE: C) rose 14% to 487 million shares. Shares short in General Electric (NYSE: GE) rose 23% to 73.8 million. The short interest in AT&T (NYSE: T) was up 11% to 61.4 million.

Sources: NYSE and NASDAQ

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
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.

Continue Reading

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Interest in Big Tech Companies Falls

NASDAQShort interest data from mid-January showed that short sellers moved out of big tech stocks, a sign that the market…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Savage Market Laggards

Short sellers often invest in stocks that have had sharp short-term gains and may have reached peak valuations. That would…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Shorts Flee Strongest Stocks

Stocks with strong balance sheets that are likely to post good earnings have lost their interest for short sellers. Base…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Nasdaq Short Interest, Bets Against Techs Move Up (MSFT)(INTC)(CSCO)(ORCL)(JAVA)

Short interest for number of tech stocks listed on Nasdaq rose on March 14 compared to figures from February .…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Interest Up In Financials, Mixed In Tech (FRE)(CIT)(EBAY)(INTC)

Short interest in a number of major financial firms rose for the period ending October 15. Shares short in Citigroup…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Shorts Exit Weak Shares (EK, AMR, BP, LVLT)

Short sellers moved out of stocks that have fallen recently. Perhaps they believe there will be a large rally in…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Hope Silicon Valley Gets Mauled

Short sellers are making large bets that tech shares have reached their high point and are likely to sell off…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Push into Banks Before They Fall (JPM, BAC, NOK, HPQ, AAPL, INTC)

Short sellers moved into bank stocks ahead of the sell-off based on data for the period that ended July 29.…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Shorts Attack The Banks Again, But Flee Bailout Targets And Retailers

No matter how far down bank stocks go and how hard regulators try to keep short sellers out of financial…

Top Gaining Stocks

Akamai
AKAM • Vol: 21,556,944
Micron Technology
MU • Vol: 65,135,624
Intel
INTC • Vol: 227,504,426
Monster Beverage
MNST • Vol: 15,284,847
Dell Technologies
DELL • Vol: 12,167,525

Top Losing Stocks

Mettler Toledo International
MTD • Vol: 539,266
Motorola Solutions
MSI • Vol: 3,101,643
Expedia
EXPE • Vol: 4,189,786
Coterra Energy
CTRA • Vol: 73,319,495
Fidelity National Information Services
FIS • Vol: 11,468,820