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☆ Short sellers may pocket $2.3 bln from U.S. bank rout over last three days -S3 Partners
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 15 (Reuters) - Short sellers may have raked in $2.29 billion in profit in the past three sessions, as they took advantage of a selloff in regional bank shares following the collapse of SVB Financial Group (SIVB.O) and Signature Bank (SBNY.O), S3 Partners said. SVB Financial and Signature Bank are among the top five most profitable shorts among regional banks this year, the research firm said in a client note. Short sellers have pocketed $3.53 billion so far in March on a mark-to-market basis, according to S3. "SIVB and SBNY short sellers are sitting on massive mark-to-market profits but have no way to realize those profits at the moment," S3 Managing Director Ihor Dusaniwsky said. Short sellers profit from stock declines by borrowing shares of companies that they believe are overvalued, selling them, and then buying them back at a lower price later.

Big hedge funds including Marshall Wace and Odey Asset Management added to short positions against Europe's banks, regulatory filings seen by Reuters and data from Breakout Point showed. 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. The banks included BAWAG (BAWG.VI), FinecoBank (FBK.MI), Handelsbanken (SHBa.ST), CaixaBank (CABK.MC), NatWest Group (NWG.L) and PKO Bank Polski (PKO.WA). BNP Paribas shares fell by as much as 12% on Wednesday before recovering to show a loss of 9%, while Deutsche Bank shares fell almost 9%. In the week to Wednesday, some 120 billion euros ($126 billion) had been wiped off the value of European bank shares.

☆ Crypto stocks slide after Silvergate decides to shut down
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The crypto lender's shares slumped 45% to $2.86, a day after hitting a record low and losing 64% since the company flagged a going concern risk on March 1. Shares of Signature Bank (SBNY.O), which uses blockchain technology, fell 9%. Crypto exchange Coinbase Global (COIN.O), which severed ties with the bank last week, dropped 3%. Silvergate's announcement also adds to a list of high-profile collapses of crypto market players since last year. With Silvergate shares down 95% over the past 12 months, and 72% so far this year, shorting has been a profitable trade for bearish investors.

☆ Traders have lost $7.6 billion betting against Tesla over the past month as the stock has surged
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tesla has crushed short sellers over the past month as the stock soared 70%, according to S3 Partners. Hedge funds betting against Tesla lost $7.6 billion over the past 30 days, making it the least profitable short. Tesla stock has been on a tear so far this year after Musk cut prices and reiterated the company's growth targets. The swift one-month surge in Tesla stock has wiped out about half of the gains short-sellers made last year betting against the company. At the end of December, short-sellers had made a $15 billion profit in 2022, making Tesla the most profitable short of the year.

☆ Wall St Week Ahead Last year's laggards lead U.S. stocks' 2023 rebound, for now
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Lewis Krauskopf | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

NEW YORK, Feb 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks that took a beating last year are surging in the early weeks of 2023, leading markets higher. A range of factors are driving the moves, including the attractiveness of beaten-up shares, a tailwind from falling bond yields and market participants unwinding bearish bets against stocks. “When interest rates fall, lower quality, longer duration assets do well," said Rob Almeida, global investment strategist at MFS Investment Management. That's weighed on stocks in the latest week, which saw the S&P 500 lose 1.1% after two straight weeks of gains. David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors, is skeptical of the latest rally and some of the stocks leading the current run.

☆ AI stocks rally in latest Wall Street craze sparked by ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 6 (Reuters) - Shares of C3.ai Inc, BigBear.ai and SoundHound AI extended a rally on Monday as artificial intelligence becomes a new buzzword on Wall Street with the viral success of ChatGPT chatbot, attracting interest from retail punters. Software firm C3.ai (AI.N) rose 11%, analytics firm BigBear.ai (BBAI.N) jumped nearly 21% and conversation artificial intelligence company SoundHound (SOUN.O) surged 40%. "Any company that mentions ChatGPT or something about AI, sees this rally ... it's just the hot buzzword of the month," said Dennis Dick, a trader at Triple D Trading. The success of OpenAI's ChatGPT, which drew multi-billion dollar investment from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), has left investors scouring for companies that develop AI-related technologies. C3.ai and SoundHound have more than doubled in value this year while BigBear.ai has surged more than 700%.

☆ The Watch List: Underscored’s most anticipated product launches of 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Cnn Underscored Staff | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN Underscored editors regularly highlight new product launches — everything from a new colorway of that viral pan to the next must-have sneaker — through announcement posts, in-depth reviews and comparative testing pieces. Now, for the first time, we’re giving readers a sneak peek at some of the most anticipated products that are set to launch in 2023 with a new feature: The Watch List. The Legendary Classic Canteen will combine an old-school aesthetic with modern design elements like a handy strap and leakproof lid. Meanwhile, the box quilt pattern keeps everything looking casual cool in four colors: natural, white, light gray and charcoal. Cabeau TNE S3: The Neck’s EvolutionCabeauThe Cabeau Evolution S3 is our pick for best travel pillow based on a variety of factors.

☆ What Wall Street is expecting from Shell, TotalEnergies and BP earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

On Thursday, Europe's largest energy company Shell is due to report earnings. Britain's BP and France's TotalEnergies are also due to report the following week. It comes after Exxon , the biggest oil & gas company in North America, posted earnings and revenue that beat analyst expectations Tuesday. Here's what analysts are expecting from Shell, TotalEnergies and BP: Shell, Feb. 2 JP Morgan — Overweight, price target £29.50 ($36.29) (25% upside) Analysts led by Christyan F Malek said improved trading at Shell's integrated gas unit was a "key" data point for investors in the fourth quarter. Morningstar – price target £5.5 (13.6% upside) Analyst Allen Good said BP had weathered a big hit to earnings due to the write-off of its Russian investments in state-owned Rosfnet.

☆ Bed Bath & Beyond surges for third day in meme-stock rally
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Medha Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A person exits a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., June 29, 2022. Among the top three companies traded on Fidelity's retail platform, Bed Bath & Beyond jumped 69% during the session and then another 20% after the bell. On Tuesday, Bed Bath & Beyond said it would lay off more employees to cut costs after reporting a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss. The rise and fall of Bed Bath & BeyondShort interest in Bed Bath & Beyond is $82.7 million, or 52.07% of its free float, analytics firm S3 Partners said in a research note. Bed Bath & Beyond's options volume was running nine times what is typical, based on recent trading, according to Trade Alert data.

Shifts in tones at big banks suggest they are warming up to Chinese equities, especially as the strong returns so far and the fear of missing out on more gains start to apply pressure. "This is still a long path and we remain very bullish on Chinese equities ...and also the currency," he said. "When the market goes up, naturally that will attract international investors to look at China again," said Nicholas Yeo, head of China equities at abrdn. Foreign investors bought a net 41 billion yuan ($6.06 billion) of China stocks via the China-Hong Kong Stock Connect Scheme so far this year, compared with 90 billion yuan of China stocks bought in all of 2022. They bought a net 35 billion yuan of China stocks in December.

☆ Tesla short sellers pile on pressure after most profitable trade in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Saqib Iqbal Ahmed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Fresh off their most profitable year ever, short sellers targeting Tesla Inc's (TSLA.O) stock are heaping more pressure on the electric vehicle maker led by Elon Musk. Tesla short interest stands at $8.76 billion, or nearly 3% of the share float, down from $14 billion a month ago, a decline reflecting the steep drop in Tesla's stock price. "As the stock price hits a floor or expected value for short sellers, they will start trading positions to realize their profits. In 2022, Tesla was the most profitable short trade in the U.S. market, earning $15.85 billion in paper profits for investors, according to S3 data. That was the best year ever for Tesla short sellers, but they have recouped only about a quarter of the $60 billion in estimated losses from 2010 to 2021.

☆ Execs from top firms like Morgan Stanley and Vanguard share tips for how to cut costs when moving to the public cloud
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Carter Johnson | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

When Vanguard first made a push into the public cloud, Michael Carr, the firm's chief technology officer, knew realizing savings was a key part of the move. Collaboration is keyAs with most technology applications, there's a human behavior element to cloud cost savings. At Capital One, it took years to build a culture of collaboration between technology and finance teams within the bank's centralized cloud expense management division, Johnston said. Before, the finance team would send the tech team an aggregate bill at the end of each month and "that was kind of the end of the story," Johnston said. Speaking the same language has instilled a greater sense of empathy across different teams, like finance, technology, business, and others.

☆ Traders who bet against stocks made a killing in 2022, as short sellers netted $300 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

But even with the huge win in 2022, short sellers still lag in recent history. Shorted stocks had a return of 30.8% in 2022, said Ihor Dusaniwsky, the firm's managing director of predictive analytics. That means short sellers outperformed the broader market, which suffered its biggest losses since 2008. When an investor sells a stock "short" they borrow shares from a broker and sell them in hopes of buying the stock back later at a lower price. Short sellers still needed to be good stock pickers in 2022 as different sectors and individual holdings could produce vastly different results, Dusaniwsky said.

☆ Tesla shares record rare jump this month on the way to worst year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 28 (Reuters) - Shares of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) snapped a seven-session losing streak on Wednesday, in their rare rise this month on the way to what will be the electric-vehicle maker's worst year on record. "The shorts are piling on and the stock is way oversold here, which could drive a bounce-back rally," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said. Tesla short sellers stand to book a profit of $16.94 billion, their first gain since at least 2016, compared with a $10.26 billion loss last year. Short sellers borrow shares to sell them on the open market in the hope of buying them back at a cheaper price and pocketing the difference. There could be more short selling until a firm-priced floor is established, Dusaniwsky said.

☆ Tesla stock is on the brink of its longest losing streak ever as shares threaten to falter for 8 consecutive days
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tesla stock has endured seven consecutive losing sessions, and an eighth would mark its longest losing streak ever. After rallying early Wednesday, shares of Elon Musk's EV company gave up gains. Tesla has tumbled roughly 40% in December alone, and almost 70% year to date. On Tuesday, the stock tumbled 11% after Reuters reported that Tesla's Shanghai factory will extend its production slowdown through the end of January. Meanwhile, Tesla has proven to be the most profitable short bet this year, with traders doubling down on bearish plays.

☆ Elon Musk has lost $132 billion in 2022 after Tesla's 68% crash - but that still makes him the world's 2nd richest person
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk has seen more than $130 billion disappear from his net worth in 2022 as Tesla continues to fall. Despite the massive decline, Musk's $139 billion fortune still makes him the world's second richest person, based on data as of December 23. Musk's net worth peaked at just over $300 billion earlier this year. Meanwhile, Musk's Tesla stake is worth about $40 billion, while his options in Tesla are worth another $28 billion, according to Bloomberg. While the decline in Tesla stock has erased the biggest chunk of Musk's net worth, it has created fortunes for those who bet against the company.

☆ Tesla shares have fallen 35% this month — and short-sellers piled on
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Short sellers raised their bets against Tesla this month, as the electric car maker's shares fell by a further 35% . More than half a billion dollars worth of shares were sold short in December, making Tesla the second-most shorted stock as of Dec. 21, according to data from S3 Partners. They borrow shares to sell them immediately with a plan to repurchase them when the price is lower to pocket the difference. More than 3% of all Tesla shares currently trading are sold short, representing $11.3 billion in total short interest, according to S3 Partners. Hedge funds expected Musk to sell shares to fund his $44 billion leveraged buyout of the social media giant.

☆ Short-sellers make $15 billion betting against Tesla as shares in Elon Musk's company sink by 70% this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Investors made $15 billion by betting that shares in Tesla would fall this year, per S3 Partners. Analysis by S3 Partners showed bets against Tesla shares proved to be the most profitable of 2022, with shorts against Amazon shares making a return of $6.2 billion. About 3% of Tesla shares are being shorted, making it the second-largest US short after Apple. The Twitter CEO has sold $3.6 billion worth of Tesla shares this year to fund operations at Twitter while he seeks to shape the social media site in his vision. On Thursday, Musk said he wouldn't sell any more Tesla stock for at least 18 months.

That works out to a 31.2% return on total average short interest of $973.6 billion throughout the year, according to S3 Partners. Stanphyl Capital portfolio manager Mark Spiegel, who has been short Tesla "constantly, in varying size" since 2014, said a bet against Tesla was his fund's most profitable individual short position this year. While higher interest rates have punished growth stocks, some investors believe Tesla CEO Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter is diverting his time running the electric car company. Long-short hedge funds, which bet on stock prices rising or falling, posted a 9.7% loss through November, according to data provider HFR. Charles Lemonides, portfolio manager at $226 billion hedge fund ValueWorks LLC, believes tight monetary policy will weigh on risk appetite next year.

☆ Tesla is the most profitable short of 2022 as traders 'hit overdrive' on their bet against the EV maker following Elon Musk's Twitter deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tesla short sellers have bagged $15 billion in profits year-to-date, according to S3 Partners. Short sellers "hit overdrive" on pressing their bet against Tesla after Elon Musk bought Twitter. "Short sellers have been backing up their TSLA short exposure for good reason, it is the most profitable short, in dollar value, of 2022," S3 said. The firm said that Tesla is the most profitable short trade of 2022, with traders bagging $15 billion in mark-to-market profits year-to-date. "Short sellers have been backing up their TSLA short exposure for good reason, it is the most profitable short, in dollar value, of 2022," S3 managing director Ihor Dusaniwsky said.

☆ Wall Street's shift to the public cloud hasn't come cheap. From dashboards to automation, here's how firms like Morgan Stanley and Vanguard are keeping costs down while using the tech.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Carter Johnson | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

But the pay-as-you-go subscription model associated with the cloud can also lead to higher expenses when usage goes unchecked. Collaboration is keyAs with most technology applications, there's a human behavior element to cloud cost savings. At Capital One, it took years to build a culture of collaboration between technology and finance teams within the bank's centralized cloud expense management division, Johnston said. Before, the finance team would send the tech team an aggregate bill at the end of each month and "that was kind of the end of the story," Johnston said. Speaking the same language has instilled a greater sense of empathy across different teams, like finance, technology, business, and others.

☆ Tesla short sellers have made $11.5 billion profit this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Investors who took short positions in Tesla stock have made an $11.5 billion profit so far this year, according to Wall Street analytics firm S3 Partners, as Tesla shares lost about half their value. That’s a nearly 60% return on the $19.6 billion invested in short positions on Tesla this year. And it’s a nearly 180-degree reversal in how they did in 2021, when their short positions resulted in a combined $10.3 billion loss, after Tesla shares rose 50%. And let’s not forget the $40.7 billion loss short sellers suffered in 2020, when shares of Tesla climbed 743%. The problems for Tesla stock, and the gains for short sellers, actually began about a year ago.

☆ Credit Suisse Struggles to Win Back Investors
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Margot Patrick | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Credit Suisse Group AG’s $4.2 billion share sale and sweeping restructuring were supposed to regain the market’s confidence. Instead, more investors are betting against the bank. Around $1 billion, or 8%, of Credit Suisse stock and depositary receipts have been shorted, or borrowed and sold with the aim of buying them back for less later, according to data provider S3 Partners. That is up from less than 3% in early October, before Credit Suisse said it would sell new shares.

☆ Wall St Week Ahead Stocks typically rally in December, investors have some caution this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( David Randall | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

September, meanwhile, is the worst month of average for stocks, with a 0.7% average decline. Gains would be welcomed by many investors after seeing the S&P 500 Index (.SPX) fall around 16% so far this year. Still, weighing on the market has been the U.S. Federal Reserve's actions to aggressively tighten interest rates to fight inflation. The average Santa rally has boosted the S&P 500 by 1.3% since 1969, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac. The painful double-digit declines in both U.S. stocks and bonds, meanwhile, have made both asset classes more attractive for long-term investors, said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab.

☆ Investors have very little to be thankful for in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Oil stocks have been huge winners this year, thanks to the spike in crude prices…which boosted sales and profits. For now, at least, energy investors are reaping the rewards. And there are also opportunities for investors looking for a little more risk…and potential reward. Finally, investors who’ve bet against the stock market also can give thanks for this year’s volatility. PC giants Dell (DELL) and HP (HPQ) also report results this week.

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