GameStop slumped as much as 60% in highly volatile morning trading.- The fall came after Robinhood and others curbed trading in
GameStop stock and options. - Trading in
AMC , Bed Bath & Beyond, Nokia and others was also limited.
The
GameStop was down 29.86% to $247.91 per share at 11.45am ET after recovering from steeper falls. It had been a highly volatile morning, with the stock opening lower before rising more than 30% and then tumbling again.
A battle between
Day traders, organizing their efforts on Reddit and alternative platform Discord, also drove up the prices of heavily-shorted stocks such as cinema chain AMC, hammering short-sellers. The resulting "loss porn" had caused glee among Wall Street Bets members.
Other Wall Street Bets targets - many of which have been heavily shorted by hedge funds - also dropped sharply on Thursday. AMC was down around 60% while Bed Bath & Beyond fell around 40%. A short position is a bet that stock will fall.
Redditors' favourite stocks tanked after popular trading platform Robinhood curbed transactions in GameStop and others such as AMC, BlackBerry, Bed Bath & Beyond and Nokia.
The discount brokerage informed clients they can only close their positions but not buy new shares. Robinhood said it was doing so "in light of recent volatility".
Members of
Some analysts noted that the GameStop debacle had knocked wider market confidence, combining with worries over vaccines and the economy to send stocks tumbling on Wednesday.
David Madden, chief market analyst at trading platform CMC
"Sentiment in equities has since improved as those worries in relation to hedge funds have faded," he said. "[It] has helped bring down the fear factor as the battle won't be as intense now."