Chip Stocks’ Historic Rout Hands Short Sellers $32B in Seven Days

The scale of the short-seller windfall is less a verdict on semiconductor demand than a measure of how crowded the trade had become. A sector that led the market for most of the past year is now unwinding that leadership in one of its longest losing streaks on record, which says more about positioning and momentum than about any single fundamental input. The open question is whether this is a rotation out of an extended winner or the start of a broader repricing; the eighth straight down session suggests forced selling may still be in play.