GameStop stock pops as Roaring Kitty returns to social media

Shares of GameStop (GME) are soaring in Monday's trading session, fueled by the return of "Roaring Kitty" to the social media platform X. The video game retailer gained notoriety as a "meme stock," with Roaring Kitty's account playing a role in the company's Reddit-driven surge back in 2020.

Yahoo Finance's Myles Udland and Seana Smith break down the details.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Morning Brief.

This post was written by Angel Smith

Video transcript

Let's move on to the meme trade because it's back today.

It's almost like we're back in 2021.

Well, Gamestop shares surging over, look at that 50% here in the pre market.

The stock is up 60% and some in the last month.

Roaring kitty the account behind gamestop's Reddit phenomenon just three years ago is making his first appearance on X since 2021 and miles.

You're breaking down what exactly this meme means and why everyone is so excited and buying gamestop here and why we're seeing this massive rally.

So explain to us what exactly?

Let's not make it seem like I'm some kind of meme master.

I think this is pretty self explanatory.

But the origin of this meme, uh as I am to understand it uh is from, it actually originated on Twitter some years ago and you know, someone's gaming and it's like now I'm locking in and I, you know, we were chatting during the break.

This is the equivalent to I'm sitting here, I'm minding my own business.

I'm checking some slacks.

I'm checking some emails.

It's like, oh, this guy just messaged me.

All right, let's go, you know, now, now we're gonna, we're gonna take some time to look at this one.

I mean, there's so much to like about this, but really, we just got off the conversation about Chinese internet names.

We've been talking about crypto over the last month or so.

Um Again, utility stocks getting memed in the last two weeks.

It now we have Keith Gill coming out of the, the, the woodwork to talk about gamestop, a name that underneath the surface, as you noted, you look at that monthly performance.

This has been ripping.

Now the stock is gonna basically be a double over the last couple of months.

There's a lot going on out there.

It, it's, it's an interesting like the, the speed and consistency with which we have been replaying the hits in this market over the last 18 months since you had that bottom in October 2022 continues to, I don't know, impress confound it.

It is the feature is the feature of this market.

It is the future of this market.

I mean, when you take a look at even this tweet specifically when we talk about, there's a lot of excitement you can, as you were just noting, you put, you can actually look at a number of different pockets here within the market, but this specifically, this has been viewed over 10.5 million times, ok?

This is this, that is now surging.

It's bringing back the whole meme era.

Clearly, if you're betting on this name, you gotta be ready to lose it all.

That's nothing that's new because clearly it's not, you have to be no Gamestop is not going out of business.

OK?

Maybe not literally, it's going to zero but you're, you're, it's not gonna continue to ride this wave.

I think what we learned in 2021 is that you got to be prepared for it to come crashing back down.

I think what we've learned, what we learned in 2021 what we've learned since and what you see this morning is there is now real money behind this.

This is not just people with Robin Hood accounts, there's like institutional traders, pod shops who are looking at this and saying this is our but does that change the investment narrative around it?

Well, of course, the charts, I mean, look at the chart, it's, it's a mess.

But the narrative is that the like I would just say there is now a self awareness when it comes to the meme trade and when it comes to the factors that are not, oh, this analysts had a meeting with management and said they're great like you are now literally paying attention to, you know, Wall Street bets.

Of course, that's table stakes, but all these other kinds of sentiment indicators that are out there for real money investors to grab.

This is again, this is not just folks who are sitting at home.

And I think that is what's the most interesting part of both today's move and the overall shape that markets have taken over the last several years.