GameStop shares jump again following post-frenzy plunge

Shares in GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) rocketed again in morning trading in New York on Friday as the Reddit-inspired trading frenzy that dominated the market last week refused to come to a definite end.

At around 10.15am Eastern Time, the video game retailer’s shares had surged 40.2% to around US$75, although this is a far cry from the all-time high of around US$347 reached last Wednesday when an army of retail traders, inspired by the Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets, piled into the stock in a bid to pressure short-seller hedge funds betting against the stock.

READ: GameStop and AMC shares plummet as Robinhood removes restrictions, regulators eye trades

GameStop wasn’t the only heavily-shorted company to see its value unexpectedly surge during the frenzy, with cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC) also seeing its share price soar last week.

However, the rally was mostly brought to a halt at the end of last week when several retail trading apps such as Robinhood restricted buying of GameStop and AMC shares on their platforms, ostensibly to preserve their own working capital.

The rally did attract some notable supporters including Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) boss Elon Musk, who is well known for having picked fights with short sellers in the past over their assessments of Tesla’s prospects.

Away from the main frenzy news, another unlikely beneficiary of last week’s events was Wisconsin-based headphone maker Koss Corp (NASDAQ:KOSS), which saw its share price rocket to a high of US$64 last Friday compared to an average price of around US$3.50 before the week began.

By today’s US session, Koss’ shares had fallen back to around US$20.30, but not before several of its executives, directors and members of its namesake family cashed out more than US$44mln in stock when the shares were near their peak.

Story by ProactiveInvestors