New Short Selling Stocks of Interest (ODP, ALU, UMC, MBI, MU, GLW, SKS, HMA, CHK)

The recent headlines over the short interest showed a rise on the NYSE and NASDAQ.  In terms of the Top 50 NYSE Jumps In Shorts, a couple key stocks stand out.  For NYSE stocks, short increased their bet in Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP) as the short position rose by 8,204,236 shares and the short ratio now stands at 3.97. It appears the shorts are betting that office equipment sales are lagging or that Office Depot will struggle against its much bigger competitor Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS). The result of this bet will be understood in January as Office Depot announces how it fared through year-end holiday sales. Another interesting increase in short interest was Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) which saw its short position increase by 5,305,141 shares with a short ratio of 4.04 in spite of a very low stock price of $3.26. A move up by a $1 could hit the shorts for a loss of 31%.  Good Morning Wall St. has a complete review of the top increases and decreases in short interest.

A tendency still exists as we noted last month for short sellers to short stocks with a price tag under $5.00.  Stocks with low prices that were among the Top 50 Jumps in Short on the NYSE with short ratios above 4 include United Microelectronics (NYSE: UMC) with an increase of 3,351,468 shares and a short ratio of 10.39 and MBIA Inc (NYSE: MBI) with an increase of 2,525,083 shares and a short ratio of 5.02.

NYSE stocks that are currently listed as being in possible short squeezes (not on news, but stocks with high short selling over the past five years and strong price performance) include Micron Technology Inc. (NYSE: MU), Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW), Saks Incorporated (NYSE: SKS), Health Management Associates (NYSE: HMA) and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK).

• Micron (MU) beat estimates last week and now the shorts are on the run as the short position rose by 4,033,386 shares and the short ratio is at 3.42.
• Chesapeake Energy (CHK) is getting the benefit of the rise in the price of natural gas along with its short position that rose by 2,630,762 shares and the short ratio is at 1.71 which is not a significant as the other names but over the last year it is rising to a new high on its short ratio.

Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date December 15th. The NYSE saw short interest increase to 13,534,278,885 from 13,181,274,622 (revised number) from an original number of 13,202,567,761. Our calculation shows an increase of 353,004,263 or 2.68%. There were 1,612 increases with 1,581 decreases.

Short interest numbers for NASDAQ are reported for the period of settlement date December 15th.  Short interest rose to 6.459,229,433 from 6,452,841,088 for an increase of 6,388,345 or 0.10%. There were 1,573 increases and 1,100 decreases.

Geoffrey A. Garbacz, GoodMorningWallSt.com