Roaring Kitty sparks meme rally with Post of Time’s “You” cover

Roaring Kitty sparks meme rally with Post of Time’s “You” cover

(Bloomberg) — Sentiment in the U.S. stock market raged across a handful of meme stocks after a cryptic afternoon X post from Keith Gill, the online personality known as Roaring Kitty who rose to fame in the meme stock craze of 2021.

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Shares of GameStop Corp., one of Gill’s original favorites in the January 2021 meme frenzy, rose as much as 14%, triggering a pause in volatility, before erasing most of the gain and ending the day up 5, 9% completed. AMC Entertainment, another favorite of the era, also erased some of its rise, closing up 5.9%.

The retailer released a mockup of a Time magazine cover with a blank computer screen and a media player that resembles YouTube. The image appears to be an edited version of the cover of Time’s December 25, 2006 issue, which named “You” as the American public’s “Person of the Year.”

Since there was no accompanying text to provide clues to the post’s meaning, day traders made other logical leaps. Shares of Unity Software Inc. – ticker symbol U – rose as much as 8.2% intraday, while airport security system operator Clear Secure Inc. – ticker symbol YOU – quickly erased earlier losses of 4.6%. Shares of Unity ended the day up 4.9%, while Clear Secure fell 1.1%.

The meme-style rally comes amid increasing signs of excess in US financial markets. Bitcoin rose above $100,000 for the first time as stocks hit new records and credit spreads remain tight.

It’s the first X post for Gill since September, when a similarly cryptic image of a dog inserted into a still from the Toy Story film series caused a brief spike in meme shares. In June, shares of Chewy Inc. and Petco Health and Wellness Co. jumped after Gill posted another photo of a cartoon dog on SEK.

GameStop shares also soared in June as Gill planned a return to his YouTube channel, which became popular during the Covid-19 pandemic but plummeted after the subsequent live stream. Gill benefited significantly from investing in the struggling video game retailer in 2020 and 2021.

Gill’s post on Thursday sparked a flurry of options activity, with traders buying bullish call options on Unity, pushing volume to its highest level since September 24, while the one-month call skew more than doubled from the previous day.

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