S&P 500
7,226.20
+0.01%
Dow Jones
49,494.60
-0.62%
Nasdaq 100
27,685.40
+0.66%
Russell 2000
2,804.78
-0.02%
FTSE 100
10,364.50
0.00%
Nikkei 225
59,260.50
-0.78%

Investing

Shorts Drop Interest in Weak Stocks

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre 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.

By Jeff Ooi., posted to LensaMalaysia.com via Wikimedia Commons
Perhaps believing that the worst is over for some of America’s most troubled companies, or fearing a year-end rally that could lift all ships, short sellers abandoned stocks is some of the financially weakest public traded corporations.

The best example of the trend is the sharp drop in short interest in JCPenney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP), a company many analysts believe will implode since Ron Johnson of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) took the helm early this year. Shares short in the retailer fell more than 7% to 55.3 million.

Another retail firm that continues to struggle is huge drug store chain CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS). Shares short dropped 21% to 13 million. Among battered retailers, the short interest in Supervalu Inc. (NYSE: SVU) dropped 4% to 84.7 million.

Among the tech companies that reported the worst results for the third quarter is troubled Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX), which has a line of products that Wall St. fears are no longer relevant. Shares short in Xerox dropped 18% to 34.1 million.

Shares short in Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR), which needs new financing, dropped 22 million to 51 million. The short interest in Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA), one of the recent failed Web 2.0 IPOs, dropped 34% to 12.8 million.

Despite deep trouble in the video game business, shares short in Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) fell 18% to 14 million. Shares short in Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) dropped 7% to 21.7 million as it works to stay relevant in the smartphone and portable computing market.

Among some of the most widely held techs, short interest rose. It was up 10% in Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) to 200.8 million shares. Intel also has faced challenges as PC sales have slowed. Shares short in Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) rose 7% to 99.2 million. Redmond also faces the challenge of slow PC sales, as well as its fight to move into the mobile market. Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), which continues to try to diversify out of PCs, had a short interest increase of 6.6% to 51.7 million. Shares sold short in Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) rose 17% to 64.6 million.

And shares in what may be the most closely watched company traded on any market — Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) — posted a 21% rise to 88 million, one more “no confidence” vote.

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.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

"Did you buy It from the mob?": Dave Ramsey hosts floored by 21-year-old's 30% truck loan
Jeremy Phillips |

"Did you buy It from the mob?": Dave Ramsey hosts floored by 21-year-old's 30% truck loan
Half of America Still Feels Financially Exposed Despite 8% Jump in Security
David Beren |

Half of America Still Feels Financially Exposed Despite 8% Jump in Security

Continue Reading

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Flee Weak Companies

Short sellers must believe that, if the market rises, shares of weak companies will go along. Their positions in stocks…
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 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 Interest Highlights: Out Of Banks And Into GE (GE)

Short sellers are will to bet, at least for now, that the worst of the banking earning crisis is over.…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Ten Stocks With the Largest Short Positions

Short sellers continue to hold huge positions in troubled companies, including J.C. Penney, while adding to their positions in some…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Savage Weakest Stocks

Short sellers aimed their guns at the stocks of the financially weakest companies, as data from the period that ended on…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Up Bet Ahead Of Year-End Market Moves

Short sellers have made a broad range of gambles that many large stocks will lose value before the end of…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Make Big Push Into Telecom, Tech

Short sellers elbowed their way into telecom stocks in the period that ended December 15. The move is probably due…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Move Back Into Financial Shares, Ignore Tech: Flee Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG) And Amazon (AMZN)

Short sellers sharply increased their gamble that financial stocks would fall based on short selling data from NYSE and Nasdaq…

Top Gaining Stocks

Cboe Global Markets
CBOE • Vol: 1,568,143
New Pluto Global
PSKY • Vol: 12,285,993
Seagate Technology
STX • Vol: 7,378,346
Oracle
ORCL • Vol: 26,317,675
Datadog
DDOG • Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ • Vol: 4,367,433
Clorox
CLX • Vol: 13,260,523
Stryker
SYK • Vol: 4,519,455
Mohawk Industries
MHK • Vol: 1,859,865
Amgen
AMGN • Vol: 3,818,618