With year-to-year comparisons as tough as would have been expected, C.H. Robinson's earnings report chose to highlight how the 3PL did sequentially, where signs of improvement were not hard to find. The numbers overall were strong enough to lead analyst Jeff Kauffman of Vertical Partners on the company's earnings call to say something that hasn't been heard much in earlier post-earnings discussions at C.H. Robinson: "Congratulations, to see numbers like this." And in a more broad round of applause for the earnings, post-earnings trade in C.H. Robinson (NASDAQ: CHRW) stock soared. C.H. Robinson has been reported as one of the most heavily shorted shares in the market, which always has the potential to lead to a sharp upward move should the fortunes of a battered company change and traders rush to cover their short positions.  It appears a lot of traders holding short positions in C.H. Robinson stock swung into action Tuesday afternoon.  Trading in the stock closed the day at $72.09, up from the $65 52-week low recorded April 17 but well down from the 52-week low of $106.14, recorded almost the full 52 weeks ago, on May 3, 2023. But at one point within 90 minutes of the market's close, C.H. Robinson's stock price was up more than 13%. Just before 7 p.m. EDT, it was up about 11.2%. The company's earnings for the first quarter beat Wall Street consensus projections. C.H. Robinson's non-GAAP earnings per share of 86 cents was better than consensus forecasts by 23 cents, according to SeekingAlpha. Revenue of $4.41 billion was $130 million more than consensus. Key sequential comparisons were solidly positive. Total revenues in the core brokerage business, North American Surface Transportation (NAST) were largely unchanged at $3 billion from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024.  But gross profits in NAST rose ...