Shares in GameStop Corp. looked relaxed in Friday morning trading compared to recent days, but the stock is still on track for its second best week of what has been a tumultuous year.
GameStop GME,
shares rose as much as 31% at the trade open, and rose 14% to $ 124.16, with more than 23 million shares exchanging hands in the first hour of trading. That’s tame compared to Thursday’s open and Wednesday’s close when trading volume soared through an already high ceiling.
By comparison, the S&P 500 SPX Index,
it has lost 2.7% this week.
GameStop shares were on track for a 200% gain for the week. While that would be an undisputed record for many stocks, it falls short of GameStop’s 400% weekly profit record for the week ending January 29.
The action’s notoriety in 2021 stems from a clash between stubborn retail investors called to arms via Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum and Wall Street firms that have bet against the video game retailer to make it one of the shortest in the history.
In a note on Friday, B of A Securities analyst Curtis Nagle said there appeared to be a “very close correlation between the number of GME-related conversations on Reddit and trading on platforms like Robinhood, as well as the overall volume of Actions”.
“The most recent data suggests that retail investors are apparently pushing GME shares back,” Nagle said. “However, one distinction from the peak of about a month ago is that it appears that short coverage is a much smaller factor.”
Meanwhile, other stocks that have been dragged down by the crash took a back seat to GameStop.
AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. AMC,
shares were down 4% and up 40% for the week. BlackBerry Ltd. BB,
it was down 4% and down 7% for the week. Naked Brand Group Ltd. NAKD,
shares fell 9% and 15% for the week. Meanwhile, Koss Corp. KOSS,
The shares fell 16% on Friday, but are on track for a 30% gain for the week.