New York, NY—As of mid-May, short interest in 2,753 NASDAQ National Market^® securities totaled 4,784,352,682 shares compared with 4,784,290,236 shares in 2,770 National Market issues for the month of April.

The May short interest represents 2.76 days' average daily NASDAQ National Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 2.83 days in April. Short interest in 663 securities on The NASDAQ SmallCap Market^SM totaled 174,099,400 shares for May, compared with 207,854,601 shares in 673 securities for the month of April. This represents 0.91 days average daily volume, compared with last month's figure of 1.09 days.

In summary, short interest in all 3,416 NASDAQ^® securities totaled 4,958,452,082 shares for May, compared with 3,443 issues and 4,992,144,837 shares in April. This is 2.57 days' average daily volume, compared with last month's average of 2.65 days.

The open short-interest positions reported for each NASDAQ security reflect the total number of shares sold short by all broker/dealers regardless of their exchange affiliations. A short sale is generally understood to mean the sale of a security that the seller does not own or any sale that is consummated by the delivery of a security borrowed by or for the account of the seller.

The monthly NASDAQ short-interest figures are current as of the 15th of the month and are released to the media after the market close on the seventh business day following that date. The figures this month include all short-interest positions reported April 12 through May 11 and settled as of May 14, 2004.

The total NASDAQ short positions for the preceding 13 months and current month follow:

For more information on NASDAQ Short-Interest positions, visit the  www.nasdaqtrader.com Web site.