Short sellers made bold moves this week. Wolfspeed and Lucid Group led a wave of rising short interest across US equities.
Wolfspeed sits at a staggering 129.9% SI % FF. That jumped from 103% just seven days ago. Availability has hit zero. Cost to borrow sits at 8.7%. With no shares left to borrow, shorts are fully locked in.
Lucid tells a sharper story. SI % FF climbed to 39.2% from 32.2% last week. Cost to borrow has spiked to 77.9% — one of the highest in the market. That is an expensive bet. Longs watching this name closely may sense a squeeze building.
Frontier Group also drew fresh interest. SI rose to 42.2% from 33.6%. The airline sector faces renewed scrutiny as oil prices remain volatile.
Restaurant Brands International saw SI jump from 6.6% to 14.8% in a week. That is the biggest percentage point rise among large-caps. Bears appear to be questioning the Burger King owner's near-term outlook.
On the other side, Avis Budget saw short interest fall nearly 8 points to 40.2%. Bears may be unwinding after a bruising period for car rental stocks.
Bitcoin hitting 20-month lows this week also dragged on crypto-adjacent names, feeding broader risk-off sentiment among short sellers.
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.