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REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoJune 16 (Reuters) - U.S. electric-vehicle startups were set for massive weekly gains on Friday after a searing rally in their shares over the past few sessions nearly doubled the value of companies such as Nikola (NKLA.O). Other big gainers such as Nikola and Workhorse Group (WKHS.O) have short interests of 21.7% and 23.9%, respectively. Reuters GraphicsUsed-car retailer Carvana (CVNA.N), another highly shorted stock, has also posted strong gains that have pushed up its value by nearly $1.38 billion this week. "Carvana probably kick-started this, it is up more than 100% in a couple of weeks on a short squeeze. Nikola and Lordstown have drawn a flurry of bullish options activity in recent days as traders place bets on further gains.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Nikola, Dennis Dick, Carvana, Tesla, Lordstown, Aditya Soni, Akash Sriram, Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Shounak Dasgupta Organizations: REUTERS, Lordstown, S3 Partners, Reuters, Triple, EV, U.S, Nasdaq, Thomson Locations: Morgan, Bengaluru, New York

During the streak, Tesla shares rose by more than 40%, boosting its market value to roughly $814 billion. The rally was kicked off by news of the adoption of Tesla's charging system by legacy U.S. automakers Ford (F.N) and General Motors (GM.N). Wedbush compared Tesla's share gains to Amazon, which for years defied many investor expectations that its stock would eventually fall. Tesla shares slumped in 2022, losing 65% of their value, and helping the shorts make a mint. The 13-day rally cost short sellers more than $7 billion in mark-to-market losses, taking year-to-date losses to nearly $12.7 billion, according to S3 Partners.

Persons: Tesla, Chavi Mehta, Aditya Soni, David Gaffen, Maju Samuel Organizations: Toyota, U.S, Ford, General Motors, America, Wall Street, Wedbush Securities, Amazon.com, GM, S3 Partners, Thomson Locations: U.S, Bengaluru

☆ Amazon cloud services back up after big outage hits thousands of users
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Samrhitha A | Chavi Mehta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

(Reuters) - Amazon.com said cloud services offered by its unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), were restored after a big disruption on Tuesday affected websites of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Boston Globe among others. FILE PHOTO: 3D printed clouds and figurines are seen in front of the AWS (Amazon Web Service) cloud service logo in this illustration taken February 8, 2022. The outage also affected services at the U.S. securities regulator’s EDGAR system, Southwest Airlines, the Verge and AP for Students. United Airlines said that its operations were minimally affected, adding “we’re out of impact.”Other Amazon services like Amazon Music and Alexa were also impacted, according to Downdetector. Amazon had its last major outage in December 2021, when disruptions to its cloud services temporarily knocked out streaming platforms Netflix and Disney+, Robinhood, and Amazon’s e-commerce website ahead of Christmas.

Persons: Dado, Downdetector.com, Downdetector, EDGAR, Alexa won’t Organizations: Reuters, Amazon Web Services, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Boston Globe, REUTERS, Services, Lambda, AWS Lambda, Southwest Airlines, Twitter, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Amazon Music, Alexa, Netflix, Disney

☆ Carvana short sellers suffer $1 billion loss after the used-car dealer's stock surged more than 400% this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Carvana short-sellers have suffered losses of more than $1 billion this year, according to Bloomberg. That's after the company's stock surged 56% on Thursday alone on the back of improved second-quarter results. The used-car dealer's shares have jumped over 400% this year thanks to its successful cost-cutting measures. Carvana said it expects total gross profit per unit to hit above $6,000 in the second quarter of 2023. The company's stock traded up 4.75% at $25.38 at last check on Friday.

Persons: —, Carvana, Ernie Garcia Organizations: Bloomberg, That's, Service, Partners Locations: Arizona

☆ Tesla short sellers down $6.08 bln in stock's 11-session winning streak -S3 Partners
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 9 (Reuters) - Traders who have sold Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) shares short have lost about $6.08 billion on a mark-to-market basis during the electric car maker's current winning streak, according to the latest data from S3 Partners. And Tesla is the largest short in the world, according the S3's head of predictive analytics Ihor Dusaniwsky, who says $22.43 billion worth of Tesla shares have been sold short. Traders have shorted 15.3 million new Tesla shares, worth $3.6 billion, in 2023. And in the past thirty days bearish bets expanded further, with 1.3 million more shares worth $303 million, sold short, representing a roughly 1.4% increase even as Tesla's stock price rose 39%, Dusaniwsky said. Tesla shares on Friday traded up 4.4% at $245.08 after earlier hitting its highest level since early October.

Persons: Tesla, Dusaniwsky, Sinéad Carew, Lance Tupper, Chris Reese, Chizu Organizations: Traders, Tesla Inc, S3 Partners, Investors, Thomson

BALASORE, India, June 3 (Reuters) - Ompal Bhatia, a survivor of the three-train crash in India on Friday, had first thought he was dead. When the train he was traveling in went off-track, Bhatia was with three friends on his way to Chennai for work. The 25-year-old had spent most of the four-hour journey on the Coromandel Express standing. The train, traveling past hills along India’s eastern coast, takes more than 24 hours to complete the journey of more than 1600 kilometres. Archana Paul, a housewife from West Bengal, was in the other train, the Howrah Yesvantpur Express, when the crash happened.

Persons: Ompal Bhatia, Bhatia, Moti Sheikh, Sheikh, ” Bhatia, ”, Archana Paul, Paul, “, Das, Jatindra Dahs, Krishn Kaushik, Christina Fincher Organizations: Reuters, Express, Thomson Locations: BALASORE, India, Chennai, Bangalore, West Bengal, Howrah, Balasore, New Delhi

☆ Semi shorts down $18 billion in mark-to-market losses in 2023, S3 Partners says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, June 1 (Reuters) - Short sellers in U.S. shares related to the semiconductor industry are down $18.31 billion in mark-to-market losses for the year to date, including $7.2 billion in losses since last week's rally in Nvidia's stock (NVDA.O), according to financial data firm S3 Partners. The PHLX semiconductor sector index (.SOX) gained roughly 15% in May and hit an over one-year high. "The Semiconductor sectors have been an investing desert for short sellers," S3 Partners analysts wrote in the report this week. In addition, S3 cited Marvell Technology Inc (MRVL.O), Broadcom Inc (AVGO.O) and Ambarella Inc (AMBA.O) among stocks prone to a short squeeze. "We expect short covering in these stocks as short sellers look to trim their exposure and limit future mark-to-market losses if these stocks continue to rally," S3 analysts said.

Persons: Caroline Valetkevitch, Lance Tupper, Will Dunham Organizations: YORK, Partners, SOX, Semiconductor, Nvidia, Devices, Marvell Technology Inc, Broadcom Inc, Ambarella Inc, Thomson

☆ Microsoft is bringing an A.I. chatbot to data analysis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft's cloud and artificial intelligence group, speaks at the Microsoft CIO Summit in Redmond, Washington, on Feb. 1, 2023. Microsoft 's hefty investment in artificial intelligence chatbots is finding its way into data analysis. For example, the data can be tapped in Synapse Data Science for collaborating on AI models and Power BI business intelligence software for building charts and dashboards. A single Copilot will be available for the tools in the Microsoft Fabric portfolio, which includes Data Factory, Synapse Data Engineering, Synapse Data Warehousing, Synapse Real-Time Analytics and a new monitoring tool called Data Activator, in addition to Power BI and Synapse Data Science, a Microsoft spokesperson said. He said that Copilot will be able to write formulas using Microsoft's Data Analysis Expressions language in Power BI.

☆ WeWork short-sellers have made $440 million in profits as shares have plunged 96% in a year
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

WeWork short-sellers have made a hefty $440 million in profits over the past year. The big gains come on the back of a 96% plunge in the real-estate company's stock in the past 12 months. The abrupt departure of CEO Sandeep Mathrani has also weighed heavily on WeWork's share price. Short-sellers raked in paper profits of about $440 million for the year through Wednesday's close, S3 Partners data shows, cited by Bloomberg. The hefty gains for traders come on the back of a 96% plunge in WeWork's share prices over the past 12 months.

☆ Premarket stocks: This is how the banking crisis ends
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

London CNN —US regional bank stocks look set to rebound Friday but are still down sharply this week, accentuating fears that federal regulators have not yet contained a crisis in the sector that could shake the financial system. Breaking it down: Wall Street is on the hunt for any signs of vulnerability in the banking system after the high-profile demise of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank in a matter of weeks. While authorities stepped in to protect depositors at those banks, investors were left with stocks that were suddenly worthless. “I believe it really only ends after we get some type of government intervention,” Michaud told me. The value of short positions in regional bank stocks reached $15.1 billion in mid-April, up from about $13.7 billion one year ago, according to data from S3 Partners.

☆ Short sellers haven't profited a lot from Hindenburg Research's salvo against Carl Icahn's investment firm
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Zinya Salfiti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Short sellers haven't profited significantly from Hindenburg Research's recent report against Icahn Enterprises. That's because Wall Street investors remain hesitant to place bets against the billionaire owner Carl Icahn, Bloomberg reported. Short sellers have made just $9 million in mark-to-market profit, per S3 Partners data. Hindenburg also alleged that the company is "using money taken in from new investors to pay out dividends to old investors." The short seller's report on Gautam Adani's company shaved tens of billions off of its market cap and dealt a huge blow to the billionaire's net worth.

☆ Nvidia short interest down 18% YTD, while stock up 91%-S3 Partners
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

NEW YORK, May 3 (Reuters) - Short interest in Nvidia Corp. (NVDA.O) is down by 7.04 million shares, or 18%, for the year to date, while the stock is up about 91% so far this year, according to S3 Partners. Short interest is currently 1.32% of the float, the lowest level since October 2022, the firm wrote Wednesday. 1 losing equity short so far in 2023, followed by Apple (AAPL.O) and Tesla (TSLA.O), it noted. Investors who sell securities 'short' borrow shares and then sell them, expecting the stock to fall so they can buy the shares back at the lower price, return them to the lender and pocket the difference. Reporting by Caroline ValetkevitchOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

First Republic reported a more than $100 billion plunge in deposits in the quarter in the aftermath of the biggest turmoil to hit the banking sector since 2008. Regional bank PacWest Bancorp (PACW.O) fell 9%, Western Alliance Bancorporation (WAL.N) 6%, Zions Bancorp (ZION.O) 5% and brokerage Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW.N) was down 4%. First Republic said on Monday it was "pursuing strategic options" to quickly strengthen the bank, without providing details. Options include an asset sale of up to $100 billion, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. "So it's tough to even describe it as good asset and bad asset," Chiaverini said.

☆ Profit for Tesla short sellers rises in April -S3 Partners
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Caroline Valetkevitch | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Tesla Inc FollowApple Inc FollowNEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) short sellers have $2.16 billion in mark-to-market profits for April so far, but shorts remain down $5.52 billion for the year so far in mark-to-market losses, S3 Partners wrote in a research note on Wednesday ahead of the automaker's quarterly results due after the closing bell. The electric car company's shares were down about 1% on Wednesday ahead of its quarterly results. Investors are focused on margins after Tesla cut U.S. prices on its electric cars for the sixth time this year. "Recent TSLA short covering may be an indication that some short sellers think that TSLA's profit margins will stay in the 20% range, and trimmed their exposure to lock in some of April's mark-to-market profits in the anticipation of a stock price rally," S3 Partners analysts wrote in the note. 2 spot in the U.S. most-shorted list, behind Apple Inc (AAPL.O), with Tesla's short interest at $15.42 billion, and 83.65 million shares shorted.

☆ Solid first-quarter stock performance fueled 8.7% short interest jump -S3
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Stephen Culp | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, April 17 (Reuters) - The solid first-quarter stock market performance helped prompt an 8.7% rise in short interest in U.S. and Canadian equities markets, according to a note from S3 Partners Research released on Friday. Short interest in U.S. and Canada markets increased by $77.9 billion, or 8.7%, to $977 billion in the first quarter of 2023, S3 Partners data showed. Technology (.SPLRCT), consumer discretionary (.SPLRCD) and industrials (.SPLRCI) reported the largest quarterly increases in short exposure, while short positions in energy (.SPNY) and utilities (.SPLRCU) fell the most, wrote Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of Predictive Analytics at S3. Year-to-date, tech shares have surged 19.9%, consumer discretionary has advanced 13.6% and industrials have gained 2.0%. Short interest exposure is concentrated in technology (.SPLRCT), consumer discretionary (.SPLRCD) and financials, which together account for about 47% of the total $976.84 billion in short interest at the end of the quarter, according Reuters analysis of the data.

☆ Explainer: What is solid-fuel technology, and why is North Korea eager to develop it?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Hyonhee Shin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SEOUL, April 14 (Reuters) - North Korea says it has tested a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), its first known use of the propellant in a longer-range projectile, as it seeks the capability to launch with little preparation. Here are some characteristics of solid-fuel technology, and how it can help the North improve its missile systems. North Korea claims to have tested a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Hwasong-18WHO HAS THAT TECHNOLOGY? South Korea said on Friday it had already secured "efficient and advanced" solid-propellant ballistic missile technology. North Korea said the development of its new solid-fuel ICBM, the Hwasong-18, would "radically promote" its nuclear counterattack capability.

☆ Analysis: Heroes or villains: Short sellers' role in the U.S. bank crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Lawrence Delevingne | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

How much short sellers contributed to the downward spiral reprises the debate about whether so-called shorts are market watchdogs or opportunistic investors who profit from others’ misery. In the case of the banking crisis, a review of data and interviews with short sellers and their critics show, the answer may be both. Some high profile short sellers were later celebrated as making prophetic calls about the U.S. housing market. Even so, interviews and public postings show at least some short sellers had placed bets against regional banks well before the crisis hit. SHORT POSITIONSSuch early short sellers, however, were in the small minority.

☆ The dollar's dominance on the world stage isn't going away. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The move makes sense, given Russia's growing status as a pariah state, but it also highlights a push to unseat the dollar as a dominant force in global trade. But to strategists at the Carson Group, a scenario where the dollar isn't the world's primary reserve currency simply isn't in the cards in the near future. Are you convinced that the dollar won't lose its status as a dominant global reserve currency? Some companies in this batch of oil stocks have upsides of up to 180%, according to strategists at Bank of America. An expert from the World Gold Council pointed out that history says gold performs well in a recession.

☆ The Nasdaq 100 just entered a fresh bull market - and a top analyst says tech names look like the new safety trade
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Those rate forecasts have bolstered tech names, and mega-caps like Apple and Microsoft have pulled the Nasdaq higher. "While it sounds like Twilight Zone comment to many investors, tech stocks have become the new safety trade with Big Tech names a major beneficiary of this dynamic," Ives, a managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush, wrote in a note. "And these tech stocks have been under owned and still remain in that camp in our opinion." Short sellers generated paper profit of $14 billion betting against bank stocks over the last month. Shorting bank names in March produced a "wide swath of profitable trades that returned +17.2% in less than a month," S3 Partners said.

☆ Short sellers generated paper profit of $14 billion betting against bank stocks in March amid SVB chaos
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Short sellers betting against bank stocks logged $14.3 billion in paper profit in March, said S3 Partners. Chaos around SVB, Signature Bank and Credit Suisse spurred a 11.4% rise in new short selling in global bank stocks. But short sellers are also facing a squeeze as prices in bank stocks come off lower levels hit this month. Stripping out SVB Financial Group and Signature Bank, those selling bank stocks short were down 4.5% since March 23, handing back $587 million of their profit made this month. "If this upward price trend continues in the rest of the regional banks, we should see short covering as short sellers rush to realize some of their mark-to-market profits," said Dusaniwsky.

One hedge fund manager described trades in the financial sector as being "all over the map", with nobody agreeing on anything. Some breathed a sigh of relief that a competitor stepped in with a rescue offer for Credit Suisse. Others worried that the $3.2 billion UBS will pay is far less than the $9.5 billion Credit Suisse was valued at on Friday, and one investor said the market may not consider this to be a positive. loadingLater, short seller Jim Chanos tweeted his shock that $17 billion of Credit Suisse bonds would be wiped out, asking "What are the Swiss doing here…?!" There was also little agreement on how investors would be positioning themselves in smaller U.S. banks, including First Republic.

☆ Short sellers are doubling down on these European banks — and Credit Suisse isn't their top target
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Short-sellers are sitting on nearly $2 billion in profit from bets against the European banking sector this month so far. The worries heightened in Europe on Wednesday as Credit Suisse shares fell by 24% — its biggest daily loss. However, data shows that Credit Suisse — Switzerland's second-largest lender — doesn't even make the list of the top five most-shorted European Banks. BNP Paribas remains the biggest target for short-sellers, with $3.1 billion in total wagers expecting shares to fall. The following table shows the European lenders that saw the largest increase in shorts over the past 30 days.

☆ Amazon just asked its software engineers to start using a new in-house AI tool, rather than ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees last month that generative AI is a "significant area of focus" for the company. Amazon wants its engineers to start using its own ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence tool at work, as it looks to catch up in the AI chatbot space, Insider has learned. "Amazon CodeWhisperer is an AI-powered coding assistant that provides real-time recommendations in your IDE based on your existing code and comments," the email, titled "Start using Amazon CodeWhisperer today," said. The move signals Amazon's behind-the-scenes efforts to join the AI chatbot race, where it has been noticeably absent in the public space. He also said Amazon's investment in this space will only increase, highlighting the maturation of generative AI, which powers many of the AI chatbots.

REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File PhotoLONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - Investment managers Bridgewater Associates, Millennium Management and Marshall Wace added to short positions on European banking shares after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sparked contagion fears across global banks, according to data from Breakout Point. Short sellers had amassed bearish positions worth more than $15.7 billion against European banks by Tuesday, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Millennium Management, Citadel, Wellington Management, Capital Fund Management, Odey Asset Management and Marshall Wace declined to comment. Marshall Wace held the largest disclosed number of short positions against banks, public filings from Austria, Italy, Sweden, Britain, Spain and Poland analysed by Breakout Point showed. Its shares were up 18% at 1602 GMT, in a broader European banking index (.SX7P) up 1.4%In the week to Wednesday, some 120 billion euros had been wiped off the value of European bank shares.

☆ First Republic Bank tumbles, drags down shares of other regional lenders
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 16 (Reuters) - First Republic Bank (FRC.N) fell about 30% on Thursday, leading shares of other regional lenders lower, as fears of a banking crisis loomed large. "Short sellers are attacking banks they think are weak, unfortunately First Republic has not done a very good job of pushing back. The regional banking sector has been reeling from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on worries that nervous customers may rush to withdraw their deposits, potentially triggering a liquidity crisis. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that First Republic was weighing options to shore up its liquidity and that larger rivals might show interest in taking over the bank. "So when you're looking at regional banks, this net interest margin situation is much more damning."

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