Bears Swarm Rental Cars and Retail Pets

Short sellers turned aggressively bearish on the rental car sector this week. HTZ saw its short interest jump 10.85 percentage points in seven days. It now sits at 84.3% of free float. Peer CAR (Avis Budget) also climbed, rising 6.6 points to 36.1%.

CHWY added 5.8 points to reach 75.6% of free float. Short availability there is high at 460%, meaning bears can still pile in easily.

WOLF remains the single most-shorted US stock by this measure. SI stands at 118.8% of free float. Its short score is 76. The semiconductor firm has rallied 162% over three months. Zero shares are available to borrow.

PCT (PureCycle Technologies) holds a short score of 84 and SI at 45.6%. It also rose 84% in three months — short pressure is building against the rally.

On the squeeze side, shorts covered hard in pharma. MDGL shed 10 points of SI to 13.9%. PTCT dropped 9.7 points to 12.9%. CRWV (CoreWeave) fell 8.2 points to 20.7% — a notable retreat from AI bears.

LUCK (Lucky Strike Entertainment) tops the short score table at 96. It carries 47 days to cover and a cost to borrow of 27.8%. That combination screams squeeze risk.

Hedge funds are also raising bets against critical minerals companies, per FT reporting — a theme worth watching.