The initial feedback I rec'd that AMAT is currently available and should have been available. They'll research what happened and hopefully fix the hole that it slipped through. EXPE however is a legitimate hard stock to borrow.
just a follow up: without getting into specific details, the problem with AMAT had to do with the way the rate was recorded into our system (the different nomenclature had to partly do with a case when stock is lent out overseas). In any event this made the system believe that it was a hard to borrow. This is a rare case which wasn't originally included in the specs. by now the programming group should have made the changes to prevent it happening again.