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GameStop Leads the Way as Meme Stocks Eye Best Day Since August

GameStop Leads the Way as Meme Stocks Eye Best Day Since August

A group of retail-trader favorites is on pace for its best day since late August, led by a mid-afternoon surge for GameStop Corp.

The basket of 37 so-called meme stocks tracked by Bloomberg soared as much as 14% Monday as trading volume for the video game retailer and speculative peers accelerated. GameStop and SoFi Technologies Inc. led the group higher as mentions on platforms like Stocktwits and Reddit’s WallStreetBets jumped.

GameStop Leads the Way as Meme Stocks Eye Best Day Since August

GameStop’s 14% rise came as more than 3.9 million shares changed hands, more than double what’s been seen over the past two weeks, while SoFi’s 13% rally comes with trading volumes tripling the average of the past week. On Friday, GameStop ousted its chief operating officer, Jenna Owens, just seven months after recruiting her from Amazon.com Inc.

While meme stocks have soared on the back of retail trader chatter and individuals pumping up their bets on social media, Monday’s rally looks to have the fingerprints of Wall Street pros, according to trading data on Fidelity’s platform. None of the original meme stocks were among the 10 most bought on the platform, with sales of both GameStop and SofFi overshadowing buy orders.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.