Edited by Peter Hillerberg2 min readStories are generated from ORTEX data and reviewed by the ORTEX team. How we publish
The US labour market ended September at a record high. Nonfarm payrolls reached 159,044 thousand, the largest September figure since 1997, according to ORTEX alt data. Average hourly earnings hit $37.81, also the highest September reading on record. That resilience is the central backdrop for a week that brings PepsiCo and Delta Air Lines earnings on Thursday. Delta's Q3 report is the first major read on how airlines translated the strong consumer into seat revenue.
Bears are pressing hard in a handful of distressed names. Wolfspeed leads the board at 80.4% short interest of free float, with zero shares left to borrow. Hertz sits at 70.2%, up 8 percentage points over the past month. Used-vehicle stress continues to drive that positioning. MiniMed () saw the sharpest move: short interest jumped nearly 50 percentage points in 30 days to 77.7%, with availability collapsing to just 1.5%.
On the other side, options traders are piling into rail stocks. Union Pacific and CSX each posted 100% positive options flow over the past seven days, up 20% to 31% year-to-date. Both names look well-placed heading into earnings season.
UBS cut targets on Albemarle and Air Products and Chemicals, citing a longer lithium recovery. Citi lifted Johnson & Johnson to $303, pointing to Medicare Advantage penetration reaching 51.1% in June, the highest level since 2013. Uber President Andrew MacDonald filed two discretionary open-market purchases worth roughly $5.3 million on September 8, a signal worth watching heading into a congested earnings calendar.
One data point cuts against the strong payrolls story. New York new car registrations fell to 16,749 in September, a 46% drop year-on-year and the lowest September on record since 2024. Norway's zero-emission registrations rose 34% over the same period. The gap between labour market strength and auto demand weakness is one to watch as consumer earnings prints arrive this week.
ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data and reviewed by the ORTEX team. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
