Bears Pile Into Chewy and Hertz

Short sellers turned aggressive this week. CHWY saw the biggest move — its short interest jumped to 81.2% of free float, up 15 percentage points in just seven days. Bears appear unconvinced by any near-term recovery for the pet retailer.

HTZ also attracted fresh shorts. Hertz hit 78.6% SI % FF, up 8.4 points week-on-week. The car rental group faces ongoing pressure from its EV fleet write-downs and heavy debt load.

WOLF — the troubled chipmaker Wolfspeed — sits at 80.8% SI % FF with zero shares available to borrow. That combination signals extreme bearish conviction. The stock has rallied 162% in three months, raising squeeze risk.

Bears Cover CoreWeave and e.l.f.

Not all moves went one way. CRWV saw shorts covering fast. SI % FF dropped 8.4 points to 20.3%. ELF also saw significant covering — down 8.6 points to 12.3% — as the beauty stock drew buyers back in.

MDGL shorts fled too. Madrigal Pharmaceuticals SI % FF fell 10 points to 14.1%.

Macro Backdrop

Chip stocks tumbled this week as an AI sell-off hit the Nasdaq. Iran-US tensions also rattled markets. Goldman's high-beta momentum basket is on track for its worst month ever. Those macro tremors likely accelerated both the new short bets and the rapid covering seen across several names.

This is not financial advice.