GameStop Corp. shares were on track for their highest closing price in history on Wednesday and their longest winning streak since the share in the video game retailer became the sticker for Reddit-inspired investment frenzy, but a sudden drop in the share price and a trading halt made the photo around noon.
GameStop GME,
The stock traded 5% to 36% above Tuesday’s close in the morning session, including the January 27 high of $ 347.51. They were on track for a six-day winning streak, the longest since September 3, 2020, when the stock ended higher eight days in a row, according to the Dow Jones Market Data Group.
It’s been a long time since GameStop’s shares became a household word from January, when buy-and-hold investors rallied on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum against Wall Street companies that were heavily against the stock, making it one of the shortest shares. Recently, one analyst showed a strong correlation between the amount of chatter on WallStreetBets and GameStop’s share price.
Prices fell just after noon, but lost more than $ 100 per share within minutes, falling below Tuesday’s closing price of $ 246.90. Trading was stopped five times between 12:20 and 12:50 Eastern time as prices fell. Other stocks wrapped up in the Reddit frenzy apparently showed similar patterns on Wednesday: AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. AMC,
Koss Corp KOSS,
Blackberry Ltd. BB,
and Nokia Corp NOK,
NOKIA,
Shares also suddenly disappeared in the morning session after noon.
By noon, the GameStop trading exceeded 32 million shares, compared to an average daily volume of 59.5 million and an average daily volume of 52.9 days of 14.9 million. The company achieved its highest market capitalization since January and currently holds a valuation of more than $ 23 billion. Last week, GameStop settled a $ 10 billion limit, after a weekly profit of 35%.
For that, GameStop recorded its second best week ever with a profit of 150%, compared to its 400% weekly rally at the end of January. The four best weekly gains for the stock occurred between a period of six weeks in 2021 when investors targeted the stocks en masse.
The results for GameStop’s fourth quarter, which includes holiday sales, were scheduled for March 23 after markets closed. In January, the company gave a preview showing that e-commerce sales increased by more than 300%, but that total sales declined during the holiday season.
GameStop shares have risen more than 1,700% this year alone and more than 8,000% over the past 12 months. For comparison, the S&P 500 index SPX,
increased by 4% in 2021 and increased by 35% over the past 12 months.