Amazon.com (AMZN: sentiment, chart, options) shares have dropped more than 5% this afternoon, pulling back toward potential support at its ascending 10-day moving average. During the past few sessions, the stock has encountered resistance at the 52 level. The equity has also pulled back to its declining 10-week trendline, which it has not finished a week above since late September.

This morning Jefferies & Co. started coverage of the shares with a "hold" rating, while establishing a price target of $54. Overall, Wall Street is skeptical of the firm. The latest data from Zacks reveals that the equity has earned 5 "strong buy" ratings, 9 "holds," and 2 "sells.

Short sellers have flocked to the stock's side. More than 35.6 million AMZN shares have been sold short, accounting for more than 11% of the company's total float. If the bears continue to add to their short positions, it could increase the selling pressure on the shares.

However, options players are rather optimistic about the stock's prospects. The Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio for AMZN stands at 1.04, which is lower than 88% of all those taken during the past 52 weeks. In other words, short-term options speculators have been more optimistically aligned toward the shares just 12% of the time during the past year.