Bears Pile In — but Chewy Shorts Retreat

Short sellers turned up the heat on several names this week while stepping back from a handful of heavily-shorted mid-caps.

Columbia Financial saw the biggest SI jump among stocks above $500M. Short interest hit 24.1% of free float — up nearly 7 percentage points in just seven days. That's a sharp move for a regional bank.

Wolfspeed remains one of the most-shorted mid-caps in the US. SI sits at 79.3% of free float and borrowing shares costs 7.7% APR. Availability is at zero — there are no shares left to borrow.

Dave Inc. also saw a notable rise. Short interest climbed to 26.6% of FF, up 3.6 points on the week.

SpaceX (SPCX), the publicly-traded private shares vehicle, now carries 29.7% short interest — up 3.6 points in a week. Analysts at Macquarie are calling it a "buy any dip" despite the bearish pressure.

On the other side, shorts are unwinding in ChronoScale Holdings. SI fell 10.3 points to 35.6% of FF — the biggest short-covering move of the week.

Chewy is seeing slow but steady short covering too. SI dropped 2.7 points to 65.8% of FF — still extreme, but the downward trend is notable. Availability is above 726%, meaning there is no shortage of borrow for those who want to add to positions.

The iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF (IVW) also caught attention today. Short interest jumped 32.6% in one week and borrowing costs nearly tripled — a sign some traders are hedging growth-stock exposure.