The short interest in AIG (AIG) rose 44% to 135.7 million shares. Short interest in Citigroup (C) rose 18% to 138 million. Shares short in Morgan Stanley (MS) were up 85% to 44 million. Shares short in Well Fargo (WFC) jumped 14% to 151.4 million. The short interest in American Express (AXP) rose 37% to 30.3 million.

“Safe” companies were also attacked by short sellers. Shares short in P&G (PG) rose 39% to 46.3 million. The short interest in GE (GE) rose 18% to 79.8 million. Shares short in AT&T (T) rose 30% to 41 million. The short interest n Caterpillar (CAT) was up 31% to 26.7 million.Short interest in Exxon (XOM) rose 18% to 39.5 million. Shares short in Microsoft (MSFT) rose 20% to 82.8 million. Shares short in Oracle (ORCL) were up 37% to 43.6 million. Short interest in Cisco CSCO) rose 9% to 61.4 million. Shares short in Apple (AAPL) moved up 16% to 28.1 million

Short sellers were willing to make huge bets against companies in deep financial trouble. Shares short in Qwest (Q) rose 24% to 70.7 million. The short position in Ford (F) was up 4% to 305.2 million. Shares sold short in GM (GM) rose 10% to 102.6 million. The short interest in Motorola (MOT) was up 29% to 40 million. Shares short in Nortel (NT) were up 28% to 40.7 million. Short interest in Sirius (SIRI) moved up 23% to 285.2 million.

Data from NYSE and NASDAQ.

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But payday loans aren’t always the best solution for your financial needs. To help you determine whether a payday loan is right for you, you need to consider how you’re planning to use it, how urgent your need is, and what your other options are. Payday loans can be expensive, so you should only use them after you’ve considered the facts and decided that it’s your best option.

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Please be careful when taking out payday loans. Interest rates on these loans are typically very high, and it is important to make sure you can pay the loan back on time.

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Thankfully the markets have finally stopped their 8 day losing streak!

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The market’s been a bloodbath recently, hopefully everyone’s doing okay!

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I sold my shares of RIMM a few weeks ago, and luckily avoided the knife. I feel that RIMM will face stiff competition from the iPhone in the consumer space, and possibly even Google’s new android phone. I’d expect a bit of a bounce depending on the market, but in the middle to long run the Blackberry may face some rougher waters.

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Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said Tuesday it will invest at least $5 billion in Goldman Sachs Group Inc., a huge vote of confidence for one of the survivors of the credit crisis that felled two of its investment banking peers.

It may be just the shot in the arm that shares needed. Wall Street appeared headed for a higher opening Wednesday, though credit markets remained uncertain about the government’s $700 billion bailout plan for banks.

In addition to buying $5 billion in preferred stock, Berkshire also got warrants to buy another $5 billion in Goldman’s common stock. Goldman also said late Tuesday it would raise another $2.5 billion in its own public stock offering.

Buffett, one of the most successful investors in history, did not mention what is happening in Washington, but he did heap praise on the New York-based firm.

“Goldman Sachs is an exceptional institution,” the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway said in a news release. “It has an unrivaled global franchise, a proven and deep management team and the intellectual and financial capital to continue its track record of outperformance.”

It will be Buffett’s second major foray into Wall Street.

In the late 1980s, Berkshire Hathaway invested in Salomon Brothers Inc. When the investment firm admitted wrongdoing in bidding for U.S. Treasury bonds in 1991, Buffett became interim chairman and helped Salomon reach a settlement with the government before stepping down in 1992. Salomon was later sold to what is now Citigroup Inc.

Buffett’s latest investment comes two days after Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last two independent investment banks on Wall Street, won approval from the Federal Reserve to change their status to bank holding companies.

By becoming commercial banks, the two companies avoided the fate of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers — the first taken over in a fire sale and the second now bankrupt — by giving them broader access to borrow federal money and the ability to build a stable base of deposits.

But it also comes with closer regulatory oversight that likely limit its ability to generate the kinds of sky high profits that were topped by few other companies.

The strict rules set by the Federal Reserve will limit opportunities for big payoffs from what is known as proprietary trading, using borrowed funds to place high-octane bets on everything from the price of oil to currencies and other commodities.

Berkshire’s preferred stock in Goldman will pay 10 percent and can be bought back any time at a 10 percent premium. The warrants allow Berkshire to buy $5 billion in common stock at $115 per share any time over the next five years.

Morgan Stanley got its own cash infusion on Monday, agreeing to sell a 20 percent stake for more than $8 billion to Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan’s largest bank.

Mark Lane, an analyst who follows Goldman for William Blair & Co. in Chicago, said he had expected Goldman and Morgan Stanley to raise capital after getting the Fed’s approval to become bank holding companies.

Buffett’s investment “sends a pretty strong message of support for the independent-bank business model,” Lane said. “It sends a stabilizing signal to the market.”

Following the announcement, the stock increased by a few percentage points. Recently, Goldman Sachs’ stock has been on a decline–along with the rest of the financial industry. However, it’s held up far better than its competitors, and with Buffet’s latest vote of confidence, Goldman should be able to regain some of the luster that it held only a few months ago.

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In 2007, Wall Street’s five biggest firms — Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley — paid a record $39 billion in bonuses to themselves.

That’s $10 billion more than the $29 billion loan taxpayers are making to J.P. Morgan to save Bear Stearns.

Those 2007 bonuses were paid even though the shareholders in those firms last year collectively lost about $74 billion in stock declines — their worst year since 2002.

These company executives are still fiercely fighting to protect their pay. Politico notes that the Bush Treasury Department is “resisting efforts” by House Democrats “to impose pay limits on Wall Street executives and bankers.”

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