Friday, November 28, 2008

McClachy shares down 3.5 percent... update - the market is betting McClatchy will fall lower

McClatchy (MNI) shares closed at $1.95 per share on Friday, down 3.5 percent from Wednesday's close. The Dow rose about 1 percent Friday.

Update: from comments:
New Short Interest data for McLatchy: 19,511,003 shares with volume down to 320,584 for 60.86 days to cover. Only a little more than 500,000 shorts covered, meaning the market is betting on lower lows.

.
.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"...Only a little more than 500,000 shorts covered...",

I don't know what that means. A little help? Why is that number important?

Anonymous said...

I read an interesting statement over at The Glittering Eye blog:

-Newspaper Journalism—Circling the Drain-
“I’ve read some reports that the AP may collapse within the year.”
---------
The demise of the slanted AP newswire would not cause me to lose any sleep. Maybe a complete purge is what journalism needs. This ‘BUT, who will collect the news?’ lunacy is hilarious. The AP selected the news, and featured articles so biased a moron could recognize their agenda. “You can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” That should be written in stone somewhere.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what that means. A little help? Why is that number important?
------------------------------

It is important because it is an indicator as to what some very sophisticated traders believe to be the future direction MNI will take. Two weeks previously during the latest leg down over 3,000,000 shares were covered when MNI dropped below 2.00 (Myself included).

The fact that only 500,000 shares were covered when the stock was hitting all time lows in the 1.45 - 1.50 range indicates that short sellers holding almost half of MNI's entire public float find compelling reason to maintain their position when a single large buy or sell can take the stock wildly up or down instantly, making it difficult or unprofitable to bail. With volume drying up and prices this low it takes a lot of conviction to maintain a short unless you're convinced that there really isn't a floor to be had.