Consumer discretionary stocks most shorted amid rising consumer prices - report

Big 5 Sporting Goods

17/06/2022 14:30

** Short interest in the consumer discretionary sector rose
to 5.51% at May end, its highest level since the end of December
2020, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence
    ** Sector remained the most shorted, as it has been since
August 2021 when it replaced healthcare - S&P Global Market
    ** Many U.S. consumers have been shifting their spending
away from non-essential products such as apparel and electronics
to groceries and households essentials amid high fuel prices and
cost of living 
    ** The decline in consumer confidence is expected to hurt
profits of companies selling discretionary products
    ** The S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector has fared the
worst of any of the large-cap indexes sectors since the start of
the year, falling by 31.4% as of June 15
    ** The analysis adds 10 of the top 20 most-shorted stocks at
the end of May were consumer discretionary stocks
    ** Among the most shorted stocks at the end of May were
Heron Therapeutics  HRTX.O , Big 5 Sporting Goods  BGFV.O ,
Beyond Meat  BYND.O  and Arcimoto  FUV.O , according to the
analysis

 (Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam)
 ((Praveen.Paramasivam@thomsonreuters.com;))