Short Interest Lightens Up in Quality Banks (BAC, BK, COF, C, GS, JPM, RF, USB, WFC)

The short interest in bank stocks looks to be one where investors and speculators are easing up on their attacks of the quality banks if you review the short interest changes from August 15 settlement date versus the July 31 settlement date. We tracked the key short interest changes in the following big U.S. banking companies: Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C); Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF), U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC).

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) saw only a slight drop in its short interest to 220.3 million shares from just over 224.5 million shares at the end of July.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) saw a decent uptick in its short selling activity as the short interest in mid-August was 17.2 million shares versus almost 15.5 million shares in the short interest at the end of July.

Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) saw a drop in its short interest down to 9.71 million shares in mid-August versus 10.6 million shares short at the end of July.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was surprisingly unchanged for the most part as the short interest in mid-August of 58.529 million shares, compared to 58.897 million shares at the end of July.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) saw only about a 4% rise in its short interest to almost 7.4 million shares in mid-August, versus just over 7.1 million shares at the end of July.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) saw a tiny drop of 2.2% in the short interest now that the London Whale losses have mostly been factored in. The mid-August short interest was 42.13 million shares versus the end of July’s 43.078 million shares.

Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) saw a drop of more than 8% in its short interest, down to 19.283 million shares in mid-August versus 21.069 million shares short at the end of July.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) saw a very large drop in its short interest, down 17.6% to 21.269 million shares in mid-August versus 25.799 million shares in the end of July short interest.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) also saw a large drop of more than 11% in its short interest. The mid-August short interest was 37.838 million shares versus 42.561 million shares short at the end of July.

JON C. OGG