Bears Circle Chips and Car Stocks This Halloween

Short sellers added pressure across tech and consumer names this week. Data from ORTEX as of 29 October shows some sharp moves worth watching.

Wolfspeed leads the most-shorted list on a free-float basis. Short interest hit 88.6% of free float, up 4.8 percentage points in seven days. Zero shares are available to borrow. The silicon carbide chipmaker has become one of the most punishing shorts to maintain, yet sellers keep piling in.

Hertz sits at 73.5% short interest of free float. Cost to borrow has surged to nearly 150% APR, with no availability left. Bears are paying a steep carry to stay short the car rental group.

Cerebras Systems is a newer mover. Short interest rose 5.2 percentage points over the week to 20.1% of free float. The AI chip firm only listed recently and shorts are building positions fast.

Liquidia jumped 8 points in a week to 26.6%. Options data flagged growing bearish activity on chip names broadly this week.

1-800-Flowers sits at 79.2% short interest with only 17% availability. Days to cover stand at 25, making a squeeze scenario plausible.

On the index radar, UMB Financial faces 90% deletion odds from the Russell 2000 December review, carrying $1.3B of potential forced selling.