Bears Swarm Rental Cars and Chewy

Short sellers made aggressive moves this week. The biggest targets: consumer names with weakening fundamentals and a rental car sector under pressure.

HTZ leads the charge. Short interest hit 84.6% of free float — up nearly 10 percentage points in just seven days. Availability of shares to borrow sits at zero, signaling extreme bearish crowding. CAR (Avis Budget) is also in the crosshairs. Its SI % FF jumped 7 points to 36.2% in the same window.

CHWY is another name bears won't quit. Short interest climbed to 82.4% of FF, up 10 points week-on-week. Despite that, availability remains generous at 367% — so shorts are not running out of ammunition yet.

GRPN also saw a notable build. SI rose to 74.3%, up 8.6 points in a week. The stock has almost doubled over three months, yet bears keep piling in.

On the highest short score list, EVCM scores 95.7 — the top reading among mid-cap names. Its 24-day days-to-cover figure makes any squeeze painful for lenders.

Among cost-to-borrow extremes, INHD tops the list at a punishing 471% APR. TURB and INM are close behind at 343% and 310% respectively — clear signs the market expects continued pain for those names.

This is not financial advice.