Retail Investors Spark Meme Stock Frenzy — Is the GameStop Saga Repeating Itself?

TradingKey - A fresh wave of "meme stock" speculation has swept through the U.S. stock market. On Wednesday, Krispy Kreme (DNUT.US) surged 47% in pre-market trading, while GoPro (GPRO.US) briefly jumped more than 95% before the open. Meanwhile, former meme favorite Kohl’s (KSS.US) plunged 16%, highlighting rapid capital rotation and an increasingly speculative market mood.

The scene echoes the 2021 GameStop (GME) saga, when retail investors on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum banded together to buy heavily shorted stocks, triggering a violent short squeeze. Now, a similar playbook is resurfacing — WallStreetBets users are turning their attention to other highly shorted names, including Krispy Kreme, GoPro, and Beyond Meat (BYND.US).

According to LSEG data, approximately 14% of Krispy Kreme’s float is shorted , 7.7% for GoPro , and a staggering 36.7% for Beyond Meat . Trading activity reveals clear signs of speculation: Krispy Kreme saw over 100,000 call options traded in a single day — 71 times its four-year average daily volume — while GoPro’s options activity hit its highest level since 2021.

Yet, most of these stocks lack strong fundamental support. Kohl’s reported a 4% year-over-year decline in net sales in Q1 and recently replaced its CEO due to management misconduct. Krispy Kreme, meanwhile, continues to struggle with slowing growth.

Vanda Research data shows that since the start of Q2, retail capital has been consistently shifting away from large-cap blue-chip stocks and flowing into small-cap and high-volatility speculative plays, including Joby Aviation and BigBear.ai.

Analyst Views:

Ihor Dusaniwsky, analyst at S3 Partners, noted that these moves have strayed far from traditional investment logic, calling the trend a “sentiment-driven market imbalance.”

Adam Crisafulli, Managing Director at Vital Knowledge, warned: “A massive meme stock surge is like a giant red flag waving across the market — and extreme bubbles like this are never a good omen.”