Shares short in Citigroup (NYSE: C) rose 3% to 65.2 million. Short interest in Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) was up 23% to 75.7 million. Shares short in Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) rose by 5% to 222 million. General Electric (NYSE: GE), which in the opinion of many analysts has a large division not much different from a bank, saw an increase in shares sold short of 13% to 141.4 million. Even the shares short in widely regarded financial firm JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) were up by 7% to 56.4 million.
The short interest in General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Ford (NYSE: F) remained high as their sales have slowed and their negotiations with the UAW have picked up. Short interest in GM rose 13% to 51.6 million. Shares short in Ford were higher by 5% to 157.1 million.
Short sellers also kept large positions in tech stocks, although in some cases these did not rise. Shares sold short in Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) were down 8% to 141.8 million. Short interest in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was up 15% to 102.8 million. Shares short in Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) rose 23% to 51.6 million. The short interest in Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) was up only 3% to 96.5 million.
Data comes from Nasdaq and NYSE.
Douglas A. McIntyre