Bears Circle Chewy, Truckers, Student Loans

Short sellers made bold moves this week. Three names stand out for speed and scale of change.

CHWY leads the movers. Short interest hit 51.3% of free float on September 7. That is up 4.4 percentage points in just seven days. Earnings are due imminently. News suggests the stock could swing $1 billion in value on the print. Bears are clearly positioned for disappointment.

KNX saw the single biggest weekly jump. SI % FF nearly doubled, rising almost 5 points to 10.9%. Knight-Swift is a bellwether for US freight. Short sellers appear to be betting the trucking recovery is losing steam.

Student loan company SLM also drew fresh shorts. SI climbed 4.6 points to 14.2% of float in one week.

On the persistent shorts list, WOLF remains extreme. Wolfspeed sits at 74.8% SI % FF. Bears added another 3.1 points this week. Zero shares are available to borrow. That squeeze risk is real.

HTZ also shows zero availability with 62.4% of float shorted. Hertz has dropped 55% in three months.

Geopolitical risk is rising fast. US strikes on Iranian tankers dominated headlines tonight. Oil-linked names and defence stocks may see fresh short interest pressure early next week.