AMC stocks bounce amid the gains and losses to end a hectic week

June 7, 2021: -It’s been quite the week for AMC Entertainment and other meme stocks as frenzied trading that is inspiring by Reddit’s chatrooms swept through Wall Street yet again.

These speculative stocks are swinging wildly on Friday but will still wrap up the hectic week with massive gains.

On Friday, AMC shares increase 2% after dropping 18% in the previous session. The stock is still up around 100% on the week. Bed Bath & Beyond and BlackBerry both dipped nearly 2% to 1.5% after rallying 14% and 58% for the week, respectively.

The original meme stock star GameStop popped 2% on Friday after gaining 16% this week.

Trading is now relatively quiet for GameStop as of late, as AMC captured most of the attention.

AMC is wasting no time that takes advantage of its massive rally and raising new capital. CEO Adam Aron asked shareholders in a YouTube live chat on Thursday to allow his company to issue up to 25 million more shares.

 This came after AMC sold 20 million shares in two separate deals over this past week, which generates around $800 million in cash.

The first transaction involving Mudrick Capital, which paid over $230 million for 8.5 million shares. Then, AMC revealed on Thursday that it had sold an additional 11.5 million shares for $587 million.

Trading volume in AMC and other meme stocks exploded this week as retail traders on the infamous WallStreetBets forum, which is continuing to encourage each other to pile in. As a result, AMC and Blackberry traded over 500 million shares on Thursday, which becomes the two most active stocks on the Nasdaq.

The frantic that trade frustrated many Wall Street analysts who predict stock prices based on companies’ fundamentals. Bank of America analyst Curtis Nagle threw in the towel on Beth Bath & Beyond on Friday, moving the stock to a “no rating.”

“BBBY’s share price more than corresponds to big moves over the past week with ‘meme stocks’ like GME, AMC, and BB,” Nagle said in a note to clients. “As a result, we move to No Rating as we believe shares of BBBY are no longer trading on fundamentals. As a result, investors should no longer rely upon our previous investment opinion or price objective.”

Bank of America terminated coverage of GameStop also, citing a reallocation of resources.

Short-covering can be at play again for these speculative names favored by Reddit traders. AMC has nearly 18% of its float shares sold short, versus nearly 5% for an average U.S. stock, according to data from S3 Partners. This week’s rally pushed short-sellers losses to more than $5 billion on the year, S3 data showed.