‘The Jig Is Up’: 70% Crash Marks Quick End to Avis Short Squeeze

The speculative mania around Avis Budget Group Inc. erupted quickly. It collapsed even faster.

In just two days, with no clear cause, the car-rental company’s stock cratered so deeply that it wiped out all but a sliver of its 600% surge over the previous month.

“You typically don’t see stocks like these swing this way,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. “It was such a strong move, in such a short time — that, too, in a household name like Avis.”

The sharp rise was, by all accounts, a classic short squeeze, in ...