Staples and Office Depot: Short Interest Declines

Office Depot (ODP) saw its shares soar by 48% on Friday, as the office supply chain told investors that liquidity was far from running out, juxtaposed with the decision to close some North American stores and sell some assets because of slumping sales.

Short positions have declined in the past three weeks, and the percentage of ODP's Market Cap out on loan to short investors (%MCOL) decreased from 5.5% (on October 7) to 3.5% (now). Utilisation, or the percentage of the supply out on loan, is low at 15%.

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Staples (SPLS) also rallied on Friday, amid an analyst upgrade and an all-day meeting with investors in which the world's largest office supplier laid out its business strategy. The %MCOL was down from 3.7% to 2.8% since October 6. Utilisation was low at 8%.

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