Short Interest Wanes Among Actively Traded Stock Market Shares

General Electric Co.’s (NYSE: GE) short interest fell 12.4% to 74.16 million shares. About 0.7% of GE’s float is now short.

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) saw short interest fall 2.8% to 228.38 million shares, or about 6.1% of the company’s total float.

Bank of America Corp.’s (NYSE: BAC) short interest fell 1.1% to 113.63 million shares, which represents 1.1% of the company’s float.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) saw a 3.3% drop in short interest to 46.86 million shares, which represents about 1.6% of the firm’s float.

Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR) showed a rise of 3.9% in short interest to 44.14 million shares. That was about 20.2% of Alpha’s float.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) showed a drop of 3.2% in short interest to 8.84 million shares, about 0.9% of the company’s float.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) saw short interest fall 6.1% to 26.04 million shares, or 2.8% of the company’s float.

Short interest in BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ: BBRY) declined 12.8% to 160.84 million shares.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) posted an 8.6% increase in short interest, to 84.87 million shares, about 1.1% of Microsoft’s float.

Dell Inc.’s (NASDAQ: DELL) short interest fell 3.4% to 23.34 million shares, or about 1.6% of the company’s float.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) saw short interest increase by 7.9% to 30.87 million shares, or 25.3% of the company’s float.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) saw short interest rise by 8.1% to 55.35 million shares, or about 1% of the company’s float.

Short sellers continue to move back in at coal miner Alpha Natural Resources. Coal mining stocks were hit yesterday on lower economic forecasts for China.

The first two weeks of July were not a good time to be short Microsoft. The shares gained about $2 during that period. But if you held on, the shares dived more than $4 after the company reported weak quarterly earnings.