Bears Circle Earnings Week as August Opens

Markets open August with one dominant theme: earnings risk. Over 1,800 companies report this week. Short sellers and options traders are already positioned for volatility.

Bears Pile Into High-Risk Names

Short interest tells a stark story ahead of the earnings wave. HTZ now has 84.6% of its free float shorted. That's up nearly 10 percentage points in a week. Availability has hit zero — there are no shares left to borrow. The stock is down 74% over three months. CHWY followed a similar path. SI jumped from 72% to 82% of free float as bulls bought ahead of earnings. Bears rebuilt alongside them. SOUN presents the most combustible setup. Short interest sits at 43% of free float. Cost to borrow is 15.1% APR. Availability is zero. That is a classic squeeze trap with earnings on the calendar.

The Week's Biggest Earnings

PLTR reports today after the close. AMD and CAT follow Tuesday. Wednesday brings LLY, the $1 trillion pharma giant, where GLP-1 drug sales are the main focus. MRK and AMGN also report. Analysts raised targets on BIIB and REGN into the week, suggesting healthcare sentiment remains broadly positive.

Insiders Signal Caution

Charles Schwab's founder filed over $15M in SCHW sales on July 28–29. CFG CEO Bruce Van Saun sold $9.3M in Citizens Financial shares the same day. Both are large, timed sales ahead of a high-stakes macro week. On the buy side, a board-affiliated fund bought over $8.6M in GSHD shares between July 24–27 — a notable contrarian signal in financial services.

Analyst Moves

HAS saw its consensus target lifted to $109.29. MLM took a modest trim to $671.61 despite 13 buy ratings. The broader analyst tone remains constructive going into the busiest earnings stretch of the summer.