NEW YORK: The number of GameStop shares being shorted continued to decline modestly, according to the latest data from analytics firm S3 Partners, as the stock fueled by retail traders fell sharply in price.

As of Thursday's close, 25.4 million shares were shorted versus 25.86 million a day earlier, according to S3. GameStop short interest, a measure of stock price and the number of shares shorted, stood at $1.36 billion.

As of Friday morning, GameStop shorts were down $8.73 billion in realized and unrealized losses so far in 2021, according to S3. GameStop shares were rebounding in price on Friday, but were still down some 77% for the week.