Major Oil Short Interest Makes Massive Surge

The short interest data have been released for the June 15 settlement date. With oil prices seemingly on the path to recovery and global markets slowly getting stronger, short interest is now more important than ever to follow.

The June 15 short interest data have been compared with the previous figures, and short interest for most of the selected oil stocks increased.

24/7 Wall St. was surprised about the magnitude of the bias on the short interest growth among the top oil stocks. Of the six major oil stocks traded in the U.S., the short interest rose in five of these by mid-June. Does this mean that investors are thinking $50.00 may be as good as it gets for a while? Will Brexit alter that view?

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Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) saw its short interest increase to 31.46 million shares from the previous reading of 30.09 million. Chevron shares closed Friday at $101.90, in a 52-week trading range of $69.58 to $104.45.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) had short interest that grew to 48.01 million shares from the previous level of 45.67 million. Shares closed Friday at $89.39, within a 52-week range of $66.55 to $92.07. Exxon Mobil is the only energy stock that remains in the 24/7 Wall St. 10 stocks to own for the decade.

BP PLC (NYSE: BP) short interest increased to 23.27 million shares from its previous reading of 18.34 million. Shares closed Friday at $32.98, in a 52-week range of $27.01 to $41.52. BP should perhaps feel lucky that its drop of almost 5% on Friday was all there was, because other stocks in Europe with active ADSs saw drops of 10% to over 25% on Friday.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) saw the number of its shares short decrease to 16.23 million from the previous level of 17.14 million. Shares of ConocoPhillips closed Friday at $43.17, within a 52-week range of $31.05 to $61.74.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR), or Petrobras, saw its short interest increase to 110.32 million shares from the previous 108.48 million. Petrobras shares closed Friday at $6.74, in a 52-week trading range of $2.71 to $9.59. Unfortunately, Petrobras may be trading on an entirely different set of fundamentals and sentiment due to its woes in Brazil.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) short interest increased to 12.71 million shares from the previous reading of 11.23 million. Shares of Occidental closed most recently at $75.27, in a 52-week trading range of $58.24 to $78.31.

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