The day's defining story broke late Thursday. US Central Command confirmed strikes on Iran after an attack on a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. Markets reacted immediately. Crude oil proxies and energy majors XOM and CVX saw options activity spike across near-dated contracts. Traders bought protection into early July. Bitcoin fell below $60,000 — its lowest in 20 months. COIN carries 12.2% short interest of free float. Bears still have room to press, with availability at 342%.
Short interest pressure hit several names hard this week. Wolfspeed tops the charts at 130% of free float, with zero shares available to borrow. WaterBridge Infrastructure saw the biggest weekly jump — short interest exploded 54 points to 85.5% of free float. On the insider front, five executives filed sales totalling nearly $87M on June 17. CEO Gary Dickerson led with over $60M. Separately, activist firm Mantle Ridge LP filed an $89.6M purchase in on June 25 — a bullish signal given the firm already holds a board seat.
Meta drew attention after the New York Times reported that Mark Zuckerberg urged the company to explore partnerships with prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi. That would mark a notable expansion into financial content.
Nike and Constellation Brands both report Monday, June 30. Analysts lifted targets on all three major US airlines — Delta, United, and Southwest — ahead of a strong summer travel season.
ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
