What happened
Meme stocks were on the move again with AMC Entertainment (AMC 4.61%), GameStop (GME +6.33%), and MicroVision (MVIS +0.66%) all moving higher heading into noontime trading, and mostly for no good reason.
Shares of AMC were up 4% at 11:40 a.m. EST, while the video game retailer was moving 5.8% higher, and MicroVision was soaring 11.5%.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
All three have benefited at one time or another from internet chatter about causing a short squeeze to make their stocks take off and inflict pain on short-sellers who would be forced to cover. Little discussion of the value of their businesses is ever conducted. All of them remain highly shorted names.
AMC has 21.5% of its shares sold short, GameStop 17.5%, and MicroVision 21.8%, so their stocks are going to remain volatile. All three, however, are seeing their shares fall by significant percentages just this year, let alone from the all-time highs they hit during the stock trading frenzy, as doubts about the viability of their businesses linger.
However, AMC is the only one with news to report, with the cinema operator announcing it had acquired a theater in Chicago that was previously operated by Cinemark. AMC will reopen the theater later this year.
Now what
Because the overall trend of these meme stocks has been to slide lower, investors shouldn't be surprised to see the trio give up their gains, either all at once or over time.
With no real catalysts evident for any of them to actually grow yet, such bounces are bound to happen, just as the inevitable decline will follow.
