It was a good day for GameStop and an even better day for WallStreetBets.
Shares of the video game retailer was priced at $91.71 at market close on Wednesday, marking a near 104 percent increase from the previous day. According to CNN Business, the spike occurred in the final hour of trading, prompting the New York Stock Exchange to halt shares not once, but twice due to volatility. Its’ reported that more than 50 million GameStop shares were traded throughout Wednesday.
It’s the first time Gamestop stock has reached this price since the beginning of the month, following a Reddit-fueled buying frenzy that shook Wall Street. The rally is believed to have been loosely orchestrated by Redditors on the WallStreetBets forum, where they encouraged others to purchase shares of GameStop as well as other heavily shorted companies, including AMC, BlackBerry, and Bed, Bath & Beyond. The short squeeze left big-time hedge funds in precarious positions, as some short sellers lost hundreds of millions of dollars after GameStop stock jumped about 1,600 percent in less than a week.
Wednesday’s surge occurred just a day after GameStop’s CFO Jim Bell announced his resignation. The company said it is now searching for Bell’s replacement, someone “with the capabilities and qualifications to help accelerate GameStop’s transformation.” The shake-up is believed to have played a role in the recent spike in GameStop stock prices.
“As Yogi Berra said, ‘It’s deja vu all over again,’” Adam Phillips, director of portfolio strategy at EP Wealth Advisors, told Bloomberg. “Latecomers to last month’s surge might be getting a new lease on life here, but there’s no telling how long this latest rally will last.”
You can read reactions to Wednesday’s surge below.
