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* U.S. equity index futures suggest modest opening gains
* U.S. March Housing Starts 1.739M vs 1.613M estimate
* Euro STOXX 600 up ~0.6%; on track for 7th-straight weekly
gain
* Dollar edges lower; gold gains, crude up slightly
* U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield ~1.59%
Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of equity markets
brought to you by Reuters reporters.
DON'T GET SHORT WITH ME! (0900 EDT/1300 GMT)
Short sellers have been reducing their exposure to U.S.
stocks recently with the value of shares sold short decreasing
by 3.2%, or $35.4 billion, to $1.08 trillion, according to the
latest data from S3 Partners.
While the list of five stocks with the most short exposure
is unchanged, Ihor Dusaniwsky pointed to "positional jockeying
below" with the most dramatic changes showing up in ViacomCBS
:
ViacomCBS, whose shares have fallen more than 60% from its
record high since March 15, dropped from the No. 6 position to
the No. 38 position in the most shorted league table, according
to S3.
Also, Walt Disney Co fell from a 17 ranking to 26
while Baidu Inc ADR dropped from 22nd place to 50th and
Exxon Mobil Corp fell from No. 25 to No. 51.
Meanwhile Analog Devices Inc moved into 10th place
from 15th while AstraZeneca climbed from 20th to 15th
while S&P Global Inc climbed to 21st from 31st.
Stocks that are a big focus among members of online forums
on Reddit, and stocks caught up in the Archegos margin call
liquidation, saw the biggest decrease in short exposure.
Although S3 notes that most of the declines are the result
of mark-to-market stock price moves and not short covering which
means that it is not due to shorts exiting their positions.
In this category S3 includes Viacom, GSX Techedu Inc
, Discovery Inc's class A and C
shares, iQIYI, GameStop and Futu Holdings
.
(Sinéad Carew)
*****
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