It was the week the meme-stock frenzy from 2021 returned with a vengeance - and it may all be over already.
All it took was a tweet from the long-dormant X account associated with investor Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, last Sunday to spark a fresh frenzy of buying of videogame retailer GameStop Corp.'s (GME) and cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.'s (AMC) stocks that lasted through Tuesday.
GameStop (GME) and AMC (AMC) weren't the only stocks caught up in this week's meme craze. While shares of the short-lived rally's flag bearers continued to unravel Friday, smaller meme-related equities ended the week with higher gains.
For example, EV-related startup Faraday Future (FFIE) soared as much as 122% Friday before crashing into red territory. The stock still gained more than 2,000% over the past five days.
GameStop Issues Profit Warning, Files to Issue More Shares
GameStop Corp.’s stock fell 20% on Friday, after the videogame retailer and key meme stock issued a profit and sales warning for the first quarter and also filed to sell more shares.
Grapevine, Texas-based GameStop said it expects its first-quarter net loss to range from $27 million to $37 million, narrower than the loss of $50.5 million posted in the year-earlier quarter. The company’s first quarter ended May 4.
Sales are expected to range from $872 million to $892 million, down from $1.237 billion a year ago.
AMC Discloses Debt-for-Equity Swap That Will See It Issue 23.3 Million Shares
AMC Entertainment Holdings disclosed that it will issue 23.3 million shares in a debt-for-equity exchange for $163.9 million of bonds that mature in 2026 on Wednesday.
The 10%/12% cash/PIK toggle bonds — PIK stands for payment-in-kind — offer an issuer the ability to defer interest payments in return for a higher coupon later.
Bill Gross Sells GameStop, AMC Options to Cash In on Meme Mania
Bill Gross is making a habit of selling options on meme stocks, and his latest trades center on GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. The legendary investor said he sold calls and puts on the poster children of the meme stock mania, as the shares of both companies take off with speculators using the retail trader favorites as a way to treat the stock market as a casino.
In a critique of the latest trading flurry, in which GameStop has soared 179% in two days while AMC has jumped 135%, Gross posted on X that “Gamestonk” is passe. “Buy? Sell? Not me,” he wrote on the social media platform Tuesday.
His strategy centers on selling what he describes as “400% annualized volatility.”
These stocks ripped even higher than GameStop in the meme rally
GameStop (GME) and AMC (AMC) weren't the only stocks caught up in this week's meme craze. While shares of the short-lived rally's flag bearers continued to unravel Friday, smaller meme-related equities ended the week with higher gains.
For example, EV-related startup Faraday Future (FFIE) soared as much as 122% Friday before crashing into red territory. The stock still gained more than 2,000% over the past five days.
Over the past 24 hours, Faraday Future was the third-most-mentioned stock on Reddit's WallStreetBets forum behind the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and Nvidia (NVDA), according to web data company Thinknum.
Retail trader and YouTuber Matt Kohrs told Yahoo Finance, "Similar to 2021 [during the meme rally], people seem to be targeting equities with high short interest," noting Faraday Future's short interest sits at roughly 92% of the float.
Other heavily shorted stocks that were volatile during the session include Crown ElectroKinetics (CRKN). The Oregon-based smart glass micro-cap company gained nearly 300% over the past five days.
Greenwave Technology Solutions (GWAV) was up more than 250% for the week. The small, Virginia-based metal recycling company added to prior session gains as shares of GameStop and AMC were unraveling.