I don't subscribe, but
The whole article:
April 24, 1998
Short Interest Climbs 3.3% On Nasdaq, Setting a High
By DANIELLE SESSA
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
NEW YORK -- Short interest on the Nasdaq Stock Market rose 3.3% in the latest month to a record.
The total, which includes Nasdaq small-capitalization and large-capitalization stocks, rose to 1,987,553,237 shares on April 15 from 1,923,330,179 shares, the previous record, in mid-March, according to Nasdaq.
On the Nasdaq SmallCap Market, which is made up of the 1,347 smaller-cap stocks, short interest rose 1.8%. It climbed 3.4% for the 4,146 larger-cap stocks on the Nasdaq National Market.
Traders who sell securities "short" borrow shares and then sell them, betting they can profit by buying the stock back later at lower prices.
Short interest is the number of shares that haven't been repurchased for return to lenders. As such, it is often taken as an indicator of the degree of negative sentiment among investors in the stocks. Investors may rely on short selling for other purposes, including as a hedging strategy related to corporate mergers and acquisitions, for convertible securities and options, and for tax purposes.
The Nasdaq National Market's short-interest ratio rose to 2.72 days from 2.69 days in the previous month. The short-interest ratio for the smaller stocks fell to 0.74 from 0.78. The ratio is the number of trading days that would be required to close out the short positions through share purchases and is considered a measure of trading sentiment.
The following companies had the largest decreases in short interest: Microsoft Corp., down 11,838,832 shares to 22,802,949; Informix Corp., down 9,414,294 shares to 8,215,243; WorldCom Inc., down 7,739,287 shares to 74,872,066; Tele-Communications Inc. Class A, down 5,732,972 shares to 25,323,712, and Intel Corp., down 4,458,141 shares to 24,620,397.
These companies had the largest increases in short interest: Washington Mutual Inc., up 6,732,950 shares to 14,522,896; Ascend Communications Inc., up 6,182,814 shares to 15,662,928; Tele-Communications Inc. Tci Ventures, up 3,114,193 shares to 5,812,002;
Baan Co. NV, up 2,669,857 shares to 15,149,570, and Sun Microsystems Inc., up 2,529,995 shares to 21,198,899.
Among companies with the largest short-interest positions: Nextel Communications Class A, was up 582,805 shares to 22,893,305; Boston Chicken Inc. was up 1,458,516 shares to 18,048,947; Apple Computer Inc. was down 565,477 shares to 14,443,385; Oracle Corp. was down 3,757,581 shares to 14,184,166 and Staples Inc. was up 1,638,656 shares to 13,620,652.
[Looks like Ms. Sessa has written an article describing in advance next Thursday's monthly posting of NASDAQ April 15 short interest]
Ed K. |
