Market highs spur short interest declines

Short interest in U.S. equities declined 4% in the second half of November, its largest two-week decline in three years. During the month of November, the Russell 3000 index was up 4.5%. As of Nov. 30, 20.2 billion shares of U.S. equities are currently held in short positions.

The balance of shorted shares neared its three-year high of 23.5 billion shares in February, in the midst of a horrible start to 2016. Among the companies in the Russell 3000 index, telecommunications services and consumer discretionary stocks had the largest percentage of their shares sold short; improving crude and commodity prices led to declines in shorts in energy and material stocks after prolonged periods of increases.

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