GameStop Mania Goes Global as Retail Traders Gang Up on Shorts Bloomberg 1/28/2021
(Bloomberg)
The market drama surrounding GameStop Corp. is spreading ever further beyond Wall Street, whipsawing stocks from Amsterdam to Sydney as traders race to bet on where the flood of retail money might head next.
Heavily shorted companies have become the biggest targets, after an epic short squeeze in GameStop helped drive up the stock more than 400% this week. In Europe, short-seller favorites including Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield jumped 20% or more. E-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. and baby-care goods maker Pigeon Corp. climbed at least 6.9% in Tokyo on Thursday.
The GameStop effect has also played out in different ways. Day traders in India have been piling into shares of the video-game retailer, which accounted for about 15% of volume on one popular platform allowing locals to bet on U.S. equities. An Australian company with “GME” in its ticker symbol jumped as much as 60% on Thurs
Jackie Edwards, Bloomberg News Microsoft Corp. Xbox games and accessories inside a GameStop Corp. store in San Diego, California, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. California, a recent epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, has lifted its regional stay-at-home orders as the outbreak slows across the state and hospitalizations ease. Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg , Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) A surge in GameStop Corp. and other heavily-shorted U.S. stocks has investors targeting some Australian names with large amounts of bearish bets.
Investors are snapping up companies that have a high short interest as a percentage of equity float after the U.S. video game retailer became a flash point between short sellers and retail traders. Some of Australiaâs most-shorted stocks like travel firm Webjet Ltd. and funeral-home operator InvoCare Ltd. are among the top performers on the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index on Thursday.