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Short sellers increased their bets against a handful of popular auto parts firms and artificial intelligence-focused names in November as the market hit rally mode. This month, the S & P 500 surged nearly 9%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped more than 11%. Many heavily shorted names also followed the general uptrend. While short bets are mounting in these stocks in recent weeks, some of the upward momentum could be due to a short squeeze playing out. The phenomenon occurs when a stock’s price surges and forces investors who are shorting the securities to buy shares to prevent bigger losses. That activity can push a stock higher. A short seller borrows stock and sells it back to the open market. The hope is the stock’s value will fall and the seller can buy it back later at a lower price and pocket the difference. Given this setup, CNBC Pro used FactSet data to screen for stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq with short interest of 25% or more and a market cap of at least $100 million through the middle of November. Here are the stocks that made the list: Short interest in software company Ebix rose 8% through the first half of November, bringing its short interest as a percentage of its float to the largest of the group at nearly 51%. Electric vehicle maker Fisker also saw short interest rise more than 10% to more than 49% of its float. Some popular short bets on a tear this month also made the cut. That included artificial intelligence stock C3.ai, with short interest down a little over 3% to about 35% of shares outstanding. The stock has rallied nearly 171% this year and about 25% this month. Week to date, the stock has jumped more than 5%. AI 1M mountain C3.ai shares over the last month Meanwhile, bets against AI lending platform Upstart Holdings rose as the stock rallied more than 12% this month and more than doubled year to date. Short interest climbed 8% to 32.6 million shares shorted. Kohl’s also made the cut, with about 26% of shares sold short. The stock has jumped about 7% this month and about 4% this week. In Wednesday’s session alone, it was up more than 2%. Short interest increased 6% during the period to more than 27 million shares. KSS 1M mountain Kohl’s shares over the last month Auto parts companies Luminar Technologies and Atmus Filtration Technologies also made the list, with short interest rising 15% and 30%, respectively. Atmus has gained 16% this month, while Luminar’s stock has slumped more than 22%. — CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
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