Aim higher, reach farther.  SEC Intensifies Efforts To Rein In
Short Selling  Wall Street Readies For Longer Limits; Are Curbs
Working?  (See Corrections and Amplifications item below.)
In a short sale, a trader sells borrowed stock in a bet the
price will decline and the stock can be profitably repurchased
at a lower price. The new rules require specific arrangements to
borrow shares in short sales rather than the existing rules,
which allow a looser assurance the shares can be located.  The
rules appear to have had their intended effect of halting the
slide in shares of financial companies such as Fannie
Mae,Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Combined with
falling oil prices and encouraging earnings reports from some
banks, shares in some of these names have doubled.  Some hedge-
fund officials until Friday said privately they considered an
extension of the short-selling curbs unlikely. However, calls
with regulators on Friday afternoon left a different impression,
giving the matter added urg