NANR, State Street's S&P North American Natural Resources ETF, heads into September with its lending market meaningfully looser than at any point in the past six weeks — a sharp reversal from the squeeze conditions that defined much of August.
The borrow story here is the most interesting thing about NANR right now. Availability has rebounded to roughly 108% — meaning there is slightly more supply in the lending pool than currently borrowed — after collapsing to just 28.7% on August 25, the tightest level in the data window. That mid-August crunch was severe: availability briefly touched 5.6% at its 52-week nadir, leaving almost no room for new shorts to enter the market. The snap-back has been equally dramatic. Availability has risen nearly 275% in a week, retracing the squeeze almost entirely. Cost to borrow has followed the same path, easing to 4.89% from a peak above 7.3% on August 3, though it remains elevated relative to the July baseline of roughly 2-3%.
Short interest is too small to drive the narrative on its own. At just 0.11% of free float, it is essentially negligible — roughly 12,300 shares short against the fund's outstanding base. The share count did jump 11% on September 1, but in absolute terms that move is noise. What the SI history does reveal is a broader pattern: shorts were far larger in late July, when around 95,000 shares were out on loan, and the position has collapsed more than 82% over the past month. The squeeze in the borrow market in mid-August and the erosion of short positions appear to be connected — tight availability dried up the supply, and shorts covered.
The price backdrop adds context. NANR fell 1% on the week to close at $89.65, a modest pullback after an 11.9% rally in August — one of the fund's stronger months in recent memory. The natural resources space clearly benefited from commodity tailwinds over that stretch, and the short-covering across the period was almost certainly accelerating that move. Options data is essentially absent: the put/call ratio is zero across the entire 30-day history, reflecting the low options activity typical of a smaller ETF. There is no hedging signal to interpret here. The ORTEX short score of 46.7 is middling, drifting slightly lower over the past two weeks, consistent with the picture of short interest unwinding rather than building.
Nothing in the data flags an imminent catalyst. There are no earnings events for an ETF, and analyst and valuation data are not applicable. The dividend history shows a $0.71 per-share distribution in June 2026, which is roughly in line with prior annual payouts and represents the primary fundamental case for holding the fund. What's worth watching is whether the availability recovery holds at the current 108% level or whether a new wave of borrow demand pushes it back toward the tight conditions seen in late August — the 52-week low of 5.6% is a reminder of how fast this particular lending pool can drain.
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