Bears Build on CoreWeave, Albertsons in Busy Week

Short sellers added positions across several mid- and large-cap names last week, with AI cloud stock CoreWeave seeing the sharpest move among meaningful names.

CRWV short interest climbed to 25.7% of free float as of 23 October, up from 21.1% a week earlier. That 4.5 percentage point jump is one of the largest among billion-dollar stocks tracked by ORTEX. Bears have been steadily building since September, when the figure sat around 19%.

Grocery chain Albertsons is another name where shorts are pressing harder. Its short interest rose to 23.8% of free float from 19.4% over the same seven-day stretch. Shorts in Levi Strauss also picked up, moving to 11.6% from 8.7%.

On the persistently shorted side, Hertz remains one of the most crowded trades on the market at 71.4% of free float. Its cost to borrow sits at a punishing 155%, making the position expensive to hold. Chewy and Wolfspeed both stay above 84%.

Tesla short interest, by contrast, is low at 2.7% of free float. California new ZEV registrations fell 37% year-on-year in July 2026 to their weakest Q3 in three years, according to ORTEX alt data. That demand signal could sharpen the debate around EV stocks ahead.

GameStop shorts remain modest at 10% of free float, with borrowing costs below 0.5%. The meme-era squeeze risk looks limited at current levels.