GameStop (GME) shares were up about 30% about 30 minutes into the trading session on Thursday. The stock's rally is an extension of a sudden 104% gain on Wednesday. Those watching the last hour of trading yesterday wondered if an afternoon tweet from activist investor Ryan Cohen was one of the catalysts for the unexpected spike.
Just before 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, board member Cohen tweeted a frog emoji with a picture of a McDonald's soft ice cream cone. Hundreds of comments linked the image to the video game retailer in an attempt to de-code what it meant.
— Ryan Cohen (@ryancohen) February 24, 2021
The theories behind the image ranged from fixing a broken ice cream machine to a MACD technical indicator.
They FINALLY Fixed the machine!!!!!!!!
— Smash $GME (@SmashJT) February 24, 2021
People that don't know about investing stuff, MACD is an indicator of trends, and MACD for $GME looks froggy(in this graph, purple about to cross orange). pic.twitter.com/RGkFoSknmh
— Eric Joan ||*|| CatalunyaLliure (@Eric_Joan_90) February 24, 2021
Prior to Wednesday afternoon's big move, WallStreetBets members had been discussing the upcoming exit of GameStop's CFO Jim Bell. The company announced Bell will be stepping down in March.
GameStop shares were at the center of a massive short squeeze in January. Redditors helped drive the stock as high as $483 as short sellers were forced to cover their positions.
Other recently shorted stocks also saw double digit percentage gains on Wednesday, including Koss Corporation (KOSS) , Express (EXPR), and AMC Entertainment (AMC).
Ines covers the U.S. stock market. Follow her on Twitter at @ines_ferre
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