According to NASDAQ figures on short selling on February 29, shares sold short in tech companies dropped sharply, an indication that investors are not willing to bet that stocks in the companies will go lower. The numbers compare to figures on February 14.
Shares sold short in Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) dropped 5.8 million to 64.1 million. Shares short in Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) fell 5.3 million to 47.1 million. Share short in PMC-Sierra (NASDAQ: PMCS) dropped 3.7 million to 29 million. Yahoo!'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) short interest fell 2.5 million to 52.8 million. Shares short in Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) dropped 2.2 million to 22.8 million. Shares short in Sun (NASDAQ: JAVA) dropped 2.1 million to 17.8 million.
Some of the largest techs did not escape larger bets that they would drop. Shares short in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) rose 3.4 million to 115.7 million, perhaps because of concerns about the Yahoo! deal. Shares short in Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) increased 3.3 million to 48.6 million.
More on short interest from AOL.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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