GameStop, AMC Shares Rise After Two-Day $7 Billion Wipeout

(Bloomberg) — GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. were set to snap a two-day rout that erased about $7 billion in value, amid further signs of this week’s meme-stock frenzy fading.

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Shares of the video-game retailer jumped as much as 16% in premarket trading on Friday, before paring gains. AMC shares rose as much as 9.5%.

Friday’s moves came as the trading intensity that powered this week’s rally eased significantly. “Retail investors’ purchases of GME and AMC have seen a significant decline,” said Giacomo Pierantoni, head of data at Vanda Research.

While GameStop experienced about $5 million in inflows over the last two days, inflows into AMC were “nearly non-existent” on Thursday, he said.

The return to social media by Keith Gill, who drove the meme-stock mania of 2021 under the moniker “Roaring Kitty,” ignited the latest rally at the start of the week. The high volatility and heavy options activity gave Wall Street investors flashbacks of early 2021, when retail traders bet on the video game retailer and beleaguered movie theater chain and propelled both stocks to record highs.

However, conditions are not the same this time around. Options activity for GameStop has declined, while activity around AMC shares has more than halved from Monday’s peak.

“It appears to me that the mini bubble is collapsing,” said Pierantoni. “When flows deviate from an exponential growth pattern and decline rapidly, it indicates that sentiment is quite fragile.”

–With assistance from Michael Msika.

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