Bears Circle Wolfspeed, Lucid as Quarter Ends

The options and short-selling market is sending sharp signals as July begins. Bears are piling into several names with intensity not seen in months.

Wolfspeed tops the list. Short interest hit 114.8% of free float, up nearly 15 percentage points in just seven days. Shares to borrow have run dry — availability sits at zero. Cost to borrow stands at 8.8%. That combination of maxed-out short interest and zero availability is exactly the setup that precedes forced covering and sharp squeezes.

Lucid Group is even more extreme on cost. Bears pay 148% annually to hold short positions. Short interest climbed 6.2 percentage points over the week to 40.5% of free float. Availability is near zero at 0.04%. These are conditions options traders watch closely for call-side momentum plays.

CoreWeave, the AI infrastructure play, saw short interest jump 7.6 points to 28.8% of free float in a week. Unlike Wolfspeed and Lucid, availability here is ample at 311%. Bears can still add. That divergence matters — it signals conviction shorts, not trapped ones.

The macro backdrop sharpens the picture. The S&P 500 just closed its biggest quarterly gain in six years. Walmart is trading under pressure on slowing comparable sales. Chip stocks remain volatile. Into Q3, hedgers are active. These short-squeeze candidates deserve a spot on any options watchlist.