A new wave of 'meme stocks' has apparently emerged, though some analysts said this was a product of summer stock market madness.
Retail-driven speculation has pushed shares of Opendoor Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:OPEN), Kohl's Corporation (NYSE:KSS), Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc (NASDAQ:DNUT) and GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) higher, despite a near-total absence of corporate news.
“The meme stock frenzy is back, this time with new players,” said Daniela Sabin Hathorn, market analyst at Capital.com.
Trading volumes have exploded across these names, driven by social media chatter, retail momentum, and heavily shorted positions that created ideal conditions for classic short squeezes.
This echoes the modus operandi in the first wave of 'meme stocks' in 2021, when retail traders clubbed together via social media to squeeze institutional short-sellers and drive up share prices for companies that were unfashionable in the market, led by GameStop, Blackberry and AMC Entertainment.
Opendoor, for instance, surged nearly 500% in a month, after hedge fund manager Eric Jackson posted a bullish viral thread on X.
With over 24% of its float shorted, traders piled in, squeezing out short sellers and fueling the stock’s parabolic rise.
Kohl’s also joined the speculative surge, briefly doubling intraday before settling around $14. It remains a favourite in forums like Reddit’s WallStreetBets, which helped drive the original GameStop frenzy of 2021.
This was a "classic retail FOMO melt-up situation", said Neil Wilson, strategist at Saxo UK, with investors "chasing higher beta".
He noted that Citadel figures show retail back to above 20% of US equity flows, "which is what it was back the first time around in 2021".
Krispy Kreme added a layer of meme-friendly branding to the mix –its ticker symbol DNUT proving fertile ground for viral memes.
The stock jumped more than 25% in regular trading, then added another 25% after-hours, without any news catalyst.
"The meme stock craze is back and is stretching into another day,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, highlighting GoPro and lesser-known Pheton Technologies as additional high-flying names with no recent earnings data or material developments.
She said future meme stock targets could be other consumer brands such as Wendy’s and Flowers.com.
The backdrop to this resurgence includes a rising risk-on appetite, a recovering crypto market, and increasingly active retail participation. Many of these stocks have short interest levels well above market norms – making them ripe for coordinated surges.
Still, the risks are clear. GameStop, the crown jewel of meme investing, saw precipitous falls of over 60% during its heyday, though gains were just as sharp.
“As we've seen before, what goes up must come down,” Brooks added.