Actively Traded Stock Market Shares Get Some Short Action

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) short interest rose 0.9% to 84.66 million shares. About 0.8% of GE’s float is now short.

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) saw short interest rise 2.5% to 234.88 million shares, about 6.3% of the company’s total float.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) short interest fell 6.6% to 114.85 million shares, which represents 1.1% of the company’s float.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) saw a 7% rise in short interest to 48.45 million shares, or around 1.7% of the firm’s float.

Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR) showed a rise of 11.3% in short interest, to 42.47 million shares, about 19.4% of Alpha’s float.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) showed a drop of 0.2% in short interest, to 9.13 million shares, about 0.9% of the company’s float.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) saw short interest rise 18.6% to 27.73 million shares, or 3% of the company’s float.

BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) saw short interest rise by 1% to 184.42 million shares, or 37.3% of the total float. Short interest continues to be reported under the company’s previous name, Research In Motion, but the stock symbol has been changed to BBRY.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) posted a 17.6% decrease in short interest, to 78.14 million shares, around 1% of Microsoft’s float.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) short interest rose by 3.3% to 24.15 million shares. That was about 1.6% of the company’s float.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) saw short interest increase by 1.3% to 28.6 million shares, or 23.4% of the company’s float.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) short interest fell by 13.9% to 51.22 million shares, or about 1% of the company’s float.

Short interest in Apple jumped again in this two-week period. The shares hit a monthly low of about $394 on June 27. Shares have risen since then, closing last night at around $420. Look for shorts to slowly back off.

Short sellers are moving back in on coal miner Alpha Natural Resources. No surprise there. It is just a question of how low Alpha Natural and the other coal miners can go.

Finally, Microsoft posted a monthly low on June 23, but the stock is up more than 25% since the beginning of the year. Shorts might have gotten caught, um, short on this one.