This post was originally published on this site
GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Inc. shares burst out of the gate Friday and held on to sizable gains as an army of social-media rallying retail investors sought to take on established Wall Street firms.
GameStop GME, +73.12% shares leapt 113% to an intraday high of $413.98, and were last up 61%. AMC AMC, +59.33% shares surged 85% to $16.00 at Friday’s open and were last up 47%. The gains come following a late Thursday announcement from online trading platform Robinhood that it would allow limited buying of volatile stocks for now. GameStop shares are on track for a gain of nearly 400% on the week, while AMC shares are on track for a nearly 300% weekly gain.
The frenzy for buying up downtrodden stocks hasn’t just been limited to GameStop and AMC.
Siebert Financial Corp. SIEB, +269.08% shares, which have already been halted several times, more than tripled out of the gate on no news, and were last up more than 300% at $15.30.
BB Liquidating Inc. BLIAQ, +15.71%, the holding company of long-bankrupt Blockbuster Video that lives on as a penny stock, has surged more than 1,000% over the past week alone, surged more than 70% at the open to 14 cents a share, and was last trading at 9 cents a share.
On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it was closely monitoring price volatility of certain stocks and was ready to take aggressive action if it finds evidence of market manipulation.
Interest in buying and holding stocks that are heavily shorted has risen greatly since retail traders using Reddit have sought to retaliate against Wall Street firms en masse since mid month, when GameStop shares started their meteoric rise.
Noted short-selling activist Andrew Left of Citron Research, who has been vilified in Reddit threads, said on Friday he would stop writing reports on stocks he feel should be shorted after 20 years.
Other heavily shorted stocks that have seen big gains over the past month include Blackberry Ltd. BB, +9.27%, Nokia NOK, +4.69%, Naked Brand Group Ltd. NAKD, +28.02%, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY, +11.95%, National Beverage Corp. FIZZ, +12.55%, SunPower Corp. SPWR, +2.80%, Tootsie Roll Industries Inc TR, +1.53%. , Ligand Pharmaceutical Inc. LGND, -4.43%, Macerich Co . MAC, -8.10%, Fossil Group Inc. FOSL, +12.28%, 3D Systems Inc. DDD, +0.47%, and, of course, Tesla Inc. TSLA, -1.38%
