Regional Banks Rallied Last Week. Traders Continued to Short the Sector
- ETF tracking group had best five-day gain in a year last week
- Short sellers saw paper losses of $1.1 billion in same period
Even as the sector takes a breather, short sellers continue to pile into trades against regional banks like Zions Bancorp.
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Short sellers increased bets against regional banks last week even as the sector notched one of its best performances in a year.
Traders added $2.1 billion to short positions in regional banks for the five-day week ending May 19, a net increase of about $2 billion from a week earlier, according to data from S3 Partners LLC. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF rose 7.8% in the same period, its best weekly performance in a year, leading short sellers to $1.1 billion in paper losses.