The NYSE Group, Inc. reported short interest as of the close of business on the settlement date of Dec. 15, 2006, reflecting transactions through Dec. 12, 2006.

Based on information received from members and member organizations, short interest increased to 9,653,015,623 shares from 9,648,665,452 shares on November 15.

The short interest on December 15 was equal to 2.6 percent of the total shares outstanding.

The short interest in warrants as of December 15 amounted to 69,526 warrants, compared with 85,564 warrants the previous month.

As of the settlement date, there were 3,658 stocks and 6 warrants available for trading. Of these, 3,054 issues had either a short position of at least 5,000 shares or a change of 2,000 shares since the last monthly report. A list of these issues, showing their current short positions and average daily volume between the trade dates, covered by this report, is attached.

A short sale is any sale of a security that the seller does not own, or any sale that is completed by the delivery of a borrowed security.