Bears Pile Into Chewy and Hertz as Lucid Hits Squeeze Wall

Short sellers ramped up bets against CHWY sharply this week. Short interest hit 81.2% of free float — up 15.4 percentage points in just seven days. That's the biggest weekly jump among mid- and large-cap US stocks.

HTZ also saw heavy new shorting. SI rose 8.4 points to 78.6% of free float. Both car rental peers CAR (Avis Budget) and Hertz sit in the top five weekly movers. Bears are clearly targeting the sector.

GRPN (Groupon) climbed to 74.1% SI. That's up 8.5 points week on week.

On the squeeze side, LCID (Lucid Group) looks compressed. Utilization hit 100% — matching its 52-week high. Availability collapsed to just 0.13% of short interest. That's the tightest borrow market since late June. SI sits at 34.9% of free float with a cost to borrow of 83.9%. Any positive catalyst could trigger a fast move.

TLN (Talen Energy) also drew attention. Short interest surged 22.8% in one week to 5.4% of float despite extremely tight borrow conditions.

WOLF (Wolfspeed) stays one to watch. SI stands at 118.8% of free float — a remarkable level for a $2.1B semiconductor stock.

Not financial advice.