Which targets are Wall Street short positions focused on? Goldman Sachs reveals the shorting undercurrents amid the AI wave.

The shorting level of U.S. stocks rose to a five-year high, but the funds did not challenge the AI giants, but aimed at the “pseudo-beneficiaries” who were taken away by the AI concept but lacked core competitiveness, and the utilities sector and weak AI stocks became a new focus. This article is derived from the article written by Golden Ten Data, and is compiled, compiled and written by Shenchao. Arthur Hayes: Bitcoin is about to bottom out, but don't rush to stud!) Before the “printing market”, it is necessary to wait for the US stock market to collapse again) (Background supplement: The correlation between Bitcoin and US stocks soared to a new three-year high “2025 gains are all taken back”, halving and DAT can't save the crypto market? The data shows that the short level of U.S. stocks rose to a five-year high, but the funds did not rashly challenge the AI giants, but detoured to find those “pseudo-beneficiaries” who were taken away by the concept of AI but lacked core competitiveness. The current US stock market sentiment is slightly tight, Oracle credit default exchange (CDS) trading volume surges, and even AI industry insiders admit that there are some “bubble signs” in the market. Against this backdrop, there is growing discussion about when, where and how to let go. Goldman Sachs' latest report on hedge fund holdings contains a lot of interesting details. The report shows that the so-called “smart money” is not ready to aggressively short the AI giants, but some of it has begun to focus on the weaker companies in this wave. First, after such a strong rally, the median short ratio of S&P 500 components remains unexpectedly high. At 2.4% by total market capitalization, it is in the 99th percentile of the level of shorting over the past five years and well above the long-term average since 1995. Shorting interest has shown signs of resurgence back in May, and has remained elevated since then after two small but painful “shorting” events in July and mid-October. It is also worth mentioning that the Nasdaq 100 index, where technology stocks are concentrated, has a slightly higher short ratio of 2.5%. The sector with the largest increase in shorting was small-cap, with the median shorting ratio of Russell 2000 constituents now at 5.5%. However, Goldman Sachs noted in the report that the most striking development was a 0.3 percentage point surge in the short swap ratio in the utilities sector to 3.2%. It may not sound amazing, but Goldman Sachs says it's one of the highest levels ever. This is most likely related to the AI bubble. After all, the huge amount of energy consumed by the data centers needed to power AI models makes otherwise “boring” utility stocks attractive. U.S. electric (American Electric Power), for example, is up more than 31 percent this year with a market value of $65 billion. Last month, the company raised its capital spending plan for the next five years to $72 billion from a massive $54 billion, mainly to power data centers built by companies like Alphabet, Amazon and Meta. According to Koyfin, its stock is currently short at 4%, and has typically stayed in the 1% to 2% range over the past decade. So, are individual utilities the most popular short targets in Goldman Sachs data? The report shows that this is not the case, as the overall level of venting is still moderate compared to other sectors ( after all, they are still ) utilities. Tesla remains at the top of the list of the most shorted companies in the United States, while JPMorgan Chase ranks fourth for the first time in a rather “peculiar” manner. Among the heavily shorted new members listed by Goldman Sachs, many can be classified as “weak AI companies” or “AI-related bubble stocks.” But the top ten stocks that are most shorted are still more “familiar”, which are: Tesla (TSLA. O) Palantir(PLTR.O) Palo Alto Network (PANW. O) JPMorgan Chase (JPM. N) Robinhood Market (HOOD. O) Costco (COST. O) Bank of America (BAC. N) IBM(IBM. N) Oracle (ORCL. O) Ram Research (LRCX. According to O) Goldman Sachs, Oracle was emptied for $5.4 billion, Intel for $4.6 billion, and GE Vernova ( for gas turbines for AI data centers ) up to $4.1 billion, all new companies on the list. Of course, these companies are large, so these short positions are still small relative to market capitalization ( accounting for about 1%, 3% and 3% ), respectively. So, what are the most shorted stocks relative to size? Goldman Sachs also offers the answer: By contrast, among companies with a market capitalization of at least $25 billion, the most shorted stock in the United States is Bloom Energy. Other companies on the list include Strategy, CoreWeave, Coinbase, Live Nation, Robinhood, and Apollo. It is important to remember that Goldman Sachs' hedge fund position report is only a delayed snapshot of the current market state, but nevertheless, it still has considerable reference value, after all, the report is based on the latest position data of 982 hedge funds, a total of $4 trillion in equity positions, of which 2.6 trillion are long and 1.4 trillion are short. For now, the U.S. stock market has recovered from last week's volatility, and many safe-haven funds remain cautious in the face of AI giants, as bubbles tend to last longer than the fund's solvency. In fact, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Huida and Alphabet are still the top five most commonly held long positions by US hedge funds. However, the rise in shorting in the utilities sector and some weak AI stocks indicates that some funds in the market have begun to try to layout, around which this may be the potential area for the next round of “big shorting”. Related reports Fed Pigeon Release" December interest rate cut probability broke 80%, Bitcoin rushed to $89,000, Ethereum stood $2900, U.S. stocks Qiyang Grayscale submitted an IPO listing application to the SEC: stock code GRAY, landing on the U.S. stock market as early as the end of this year Bitcoin rebounded more than $109,000, Ethereum returned to $3,800! U.S. stocks are all red, the Nasdaq achieved 7 consecutive monthly gains “What targets are Wall Street bears targeting?” Goldman Sachs exposes the dark line of short selling under the AI wave" This article was first published in BlockTempo's “Dynamic Trend - The Most Influential Blockchain News Media”.