NEW YORK, Dec. 27, 2006 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- As of mid-December, short interest in 2,742 NASDAQ Global Market(sm) securities totaled 6,777,076,690 shares compared with 6,864,479,290 shares in 2,753 Global Market issues for the month of November.
The December short interest represents 3.71 days average daily NASDAQ Global Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 3.46 days in November. Short interest in 546 securities on The NASDAQ Capital Market(sm) totaled 147,333,047 shares for December, compared with 139,888,751 shares in 558 securities for the month of November. This represents 1.56 days average daily volume, compared with last month's figure of 1.70.
In summary, short interest in all 3,288 NASDAQ(r) securities totaled 6,924,409,737 shares for December, compared with 3,311 issues and 7,004,368,041 shares in November. This is 3.60 days average daily volume, compared with last month's average of 3.39 days.
The open short-interest positions reported for each NASDAQ security reflect the total number of shares sold short by all broker/dealers regardless of their exchange affiliations. A short sale is generally understood to mean the sale of a security that the seller does not own or any sale that is consummated by the delivery of a security borrowed by or for the account of the seller.
The monthly NASDAQ short-interest figures are current as of the 14th of the month and are released to the media after the market close on the seventh business day following that date. The figures this month include all short-interest positions reported from November 10, 2006 through December 12, 2006 and settled as of December 15, 2006.
The total NASDAQ short positions for the preceding 12 months and current month follow:
Number of
Settlement Date Total Short Interest Securities
--------------- -------------------- ----------
November 15, 2005 5,913,634,842 3,302
December 15, 2005 5,882,483,998 3,311
January 13, 2006 5,885,355,970 3,312
February 15, 2006 5,801,377,970 3,305
March 15, 2006 6,198,926,815 3,295
April 13, 2006 6,286,025,884 3,282
May 15, 2006 6,451,337,395 3,301
June 15, 2006 7,188,384,593 3,299
July 14, 2006 7,139,899,294 3,300
August 15, 2006 7,268,106,428 3,286
September 15, 2006 7,353,774,333 3,294
October 13, 2006 7,414,701,519 3,312
November 15, 2006 7,004,368,041 3,311
December 15, 2006 6,924,409,737 3,288
For more information on NASDAQ Short-Interest positions, including publication dates, visit http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/asp/short_interest.asp.