GameStop stock doubles in afternoon; even Reddit is surprised

By David Randall

NEW YORK (Reuters) - GameStop Corp shares more than doubled in afternoon trading on Wednesday, surprising those who thought the video game retailer's stock price would stabilize after recent hearings in the U.S. Congress into the fierce rally and steep dive that upended Wall Street in January.

Trading in GameStop was halted at one point, and shares closed up about 104% at $91.71 following a rally that began around 2:30 pm Eastern time Wednesday with no obvious catalyst.

The spark seemed to take posters on Reddit's popular WallStreetBets forum by surprise.

"Why is GME going back up. is it Melvin covering?!," one user wrote.

Shares of GameStop soared more than 1,600% in January as retail investors bought shares of the company to punish hedge funds such as Melvin Capital that had taken outsized bets against the company. Melvin Capital said it had lost 53% before closing its position in GameStop.

Other so-called "stonks" - an intentional misspelling of 'stocks' - favored by retail traders, also shot higher in Wednesday afternoon trading. AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc gained 18%, while BlackBerry Corp rose nearly 9%. Shares of Canadian cannabis company Tilray Inc gained nearly 13%.

The retail trading frenzy was the subject of hearings in Washington last week, where Keith Gill, a Reddit user and YouTube streamer known as Roaring Kitty who had boosted the stock with his videos, reiterated that he was a fan of the stock.

 

(Reporting by David Randall; Editing by David Gregorio)