Chips, Cars and a Record from Taiwan

Semiconductors in the Crossfire

Bears are adding to short positions in chip stocks even as the sector bounced Wednesday. NVDA, AMD and MU top the negative options flow table by volume over the past seven days. The backdrop makes the positioning hard to read. Taiwan export orders hit $114.2bn in September 2026, up 62% year on year and the largest September reading since records began in 1984. TSM sits at the centre of that demand cycle. Bears in chips are leaning against a very strong real-economy signal.

CRWV is caught in both stories. CoreWeave's short interest rose to 23.7% of free float, its highest in over a month. Its RSI sits at 30.8, deep in oversold territory, and the stock is down 13% year to date.

European Autos Face a Mixed Print

Renault reports today. Austrian car registrations, a leading indicator for its revenue, ran 6% above year-ago levels in the latest quarter. Dutch registrations ran 19% below. Volvo Car reports tomorrow. Finnish registrations are running 9% below last year's pace, while India is up 9%. The read-through for both prints is genuinely mixed.

Roche also reports today, alongside Rentokil Initial and Ipsen. It is a heavy morning for European earnings.

Shorting and Index Radar

CHWY short interest jumped to 89.2% of free float in October, up from around 66% at the start of the month. On the index front, PBF sits just 0.2% above the Russell 1000 entry line ahead of the 30 October rank date. A confirmed addition would force $411M of buying. MKC is 77% likely to exit the MSCI World in November, carrying $717M of forced selling.

Analyst desks trimmed targets on SCHW and UPS while nudging utilities higher. UK wage growth came in at 3.7% in August, the weakest August reading in five years.