Bears in Full Retreat — With One Glaring Exception

Short sellers unwound positions sharply this week across mega-cap tech and small-caps alike. INTC and MSFT saw the most dramatic daily drops. Against that tide, HQ and CBRS stand out — borrow markets there are seizing up fast.

Top Movers

HQ is the week's standout stress signal. Short interest surged 141% to 720K shares. Cost to borrow hit 354%. Utilization is near-maxed with availability at just 39%. That combination signals acute scarcity.

CBRS saw SI climb 27% to 9.9M shares. Borrow availability collapsed to zero. Cost to borrow sits at just 1.46% — but zero availability means no new shorts can be established regardless of price.

INTC short interest plunged 55% in one week to 103K shares. The stock rallied 15%. Cost to borrow ticked up to 7.7% as remaining borrowers pay more for a shrinking pool.

MSFT dropped 58% in a single day to 260K shares. Over the week it is still up 39%. Cost to borrow rose to 4.1%.

AAPL moved the other way. SI rose 44% to 78,680 shares. That remains tiny relative to free float. But the directional shift is notable for a mega-cap.

ALOY short interest climbed 21.6% to 3.5M shares despite a 26% stock rally. Cost to borrow is elevated at 27.6%. Bears are adding into strength — an unusual conviction signal.

RMIX SI surged 24% to 367K shares. The stock was up 23% on analyst upgrades. Short sellers are fading the move.

HMMC saw the sharpest weekly unwind. SI fell 86% to just 6,796 shares. The stock gained 11% on the week.

HGER SI plummeted 67% in a single day. It now sits at 0.20% of float. Positions unwound rapidly with no signs of rebuilding.

Sector Themes

The week's 827 pulses span a single broad universe with no clean sector breakdown in the data. Several themes emerge from the ticker list nonetheless.

Tech unwinds dominated. INTC, MSFT, and AIQ all saw significant short covering. AIQ SI fell 27.6% to 0.78% of float. Shares borrowed have tripled since May — but the weekly direction is covering.

Semis stayed in focus. KLAC, TXN, TSM, and STM all generated pulses. The direction was mixed. Semiconductor names remain active on both sides of the short book.

ETF borrow markets tightened. ARTY, MGK, IWY, BLOK, and ROM all triggered convergence signals. ETF borrow tightening often precedes broader sector hedging activity.

Energy and materials saw scattered activity. CVX, BP, DOW, OLN, and XLB all generated pulses. OLN bears piled in as options hit a 52-week extreme — a sharp positioning signal.

Convergence Watch

Several tickers showed multi-signal alignment this week.

SMCI SI climbed to 13.4% of free float. Peers rallied. Options stayed defensive. That three-way divergence — rising shorts, peer strength, hedged options — is a classic stress configuration.

JEF drew a UBS downgrade alongside rising options caution ahead of earnings. Short interest and negative analyst sentiment are now pointing the same direction.

PYPL shows the opposite tension. Options bulls dominate. But shorts are building quietly. The two sides are pulling against each other.

CELH is similarly split. Bulls and bears are both adding positions. One side will be wrong.

BLOK borrow market tightened as short interest tripled. That pace of SI growth into a tightening borrow environment raises squeeze risk.

RZLV shorts retreated — but borrow costs stayed painful. Covering is happening, but remaining holders are paying a high carry.

LEU borrow costs jumped 84% as shorts covered into thin supply. The combination of covering and rising CTB points to a disorderly unwind.