GameStop Corp. shares on Wednesday they were on their way to their highest closing price in history and their longest winning streak since the video game retailer’s stock became the poster boy for the Reddit-inspired investment frenzy, but a sudden drop in price of stocks and an interruption in trading obscured image around noon.
GameStop GME,
The shares traded 5% to 36% above Tuesday’s close in Wednesday morning’s session, including the top of the stock’s record closing close on January 27 at $ 347.51. They were on their way to a six-day winning streak, the longest since September 3, 2020, when the stock ended up bullish for eight consecutive days, according to the Dow Jones Market Data Group.
That was well before GameStop shares became a household word starting in January, when buying and maintenance investors on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum rallied against Wall Street companies that were betting heavily against the shares, making them a of the best-selling stocks out there. Recently, an analyst drew a strong correlation between the volume of conversation on WallStreetBets and the price of GameStop shares.
Prices plummeted shortly after noon, however, losing more than $ 100 per share in a matter of minutes and falling below Tuesday’s closing price of $ 246.90. Business was interrupted five times between 12:20 pm and 12:50 pm Eastern time, with falling prices. Other stocks that were wrapped up in the Reddit frenzy appeared to show similar patterns at different scales on Wednesday: AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. AMC,
Koss Corp. KOSS,
Blackberry Ltd. BB,
and Nokia Corp. NOK,
NOKIA,
stocks also saw gains in the morning session suddenly disappear after noon.
At noon, GameStop’s trading volume exceeded 32 million shares, compared to an average 10-day daily volume of 59.5 million and an average 52-week daily volume of 14.9 million. The company had been commanding its largest market capitalization since January and is currently valued at more than $ 23 billion. Last week, GameStop closed a timid cap of $ 10 billion, after a 35% weekly gain.
Before that, GameStop recorded its second best week of all time, with a 150% gain, compared to its 400% weekly rally at the end of January. The top four weekly earnings for stocks occurred over a six-week period in 2021, when investors turned to stocks in droves.
GameStop’s fourth-quarter results, which include holiday sales, are scheduled for March 23, after markets close. In January, the company took a peek showing that e-commerce sales increased by more than 300%, but overall sales fell during the holiday season.
GameStop’s shares have risen more than 1,700% this year alone, and more than 8,000% in the last 12 months. By comparison, the S&P 500 SPX index,
increased 4% in 2021 and 35% in the last 12 months.