Roaring kitten is late
As of 12:05 p.m., Roaring Kitty had not yet started live streaming, and more than 400,000 people were waiting on its YouTube page.
Meanwhile, shares of GameStop were suspended from trading due to volatility, with shares falling 24.6%.
GameStop ahead of live streaming
shares game station Shares fell more than 20% as traders awaited the live broadcast of “Roaring Kitty.” Despite the decline, the stock is still up more than 60% this week.
— Fred Ambert
‘Roaring Katie’ returns to live streaming following recent GameStop rally and movie
Although Keith Gill went live on YouTube for the first time in nearly four years on Friday, the Roaring Kitten character continued to generate interest even when he was offline.
Gill credited for promoting retail traders game station Frenzy during the pandemic. The investor hosted a three-hour livestream in August 2020, explaining his thesis on why the video game retailer was a good choice.
The craze was documented in the 2023 film “Dumb Money,” starring Paul Dano as Jill alongside Pete Davidson and America Ferrera Starring.
GameStop shares have been rising since Gill returned to social media last month. Since early June, the stock has soared nearly 60% after more than doubling in May.
— Alex Harling
What to read before Roaring Kitty goes live
Reddit user Keith Gill’s page, thought to have inspired the GameStop rally, is seen on a laptop ahead of a scheduled YouTube livestream on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Friday, June 7, 2024.
Michael Nagel | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Not yet following the return of Roaring Cat or its impact game station And other meme stocks? Here are the top reads from CNBC:
— Alex Harring, Yun Li
80,000 people are waiting for the live broadcast to start
As of 11 a.m. ET, an hour before the live broadcast began, more than 80,000 people were waiting for kickoff on Gill’s YouTube page.
This will be Roaring Kitty’s first live broadcast in more than three years. He frequently hosted these events in August 2020, talking about GameStop for up to three hours.
— Yun Li
GameStop releases earnings report ahead of schedule, plans to sell more shares
Traders work under the GameStop Corp. logo on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Friday, June 7, 2024.
Michael Nagel | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Before Friday morning’s live broadcast, game station The company unexpectedly released its first-quarter earnings report, which was originally scheduled to be released after the bell next Tuesday.
The company showed no signs of operational improvement. The company reported net sales of $881.8 million for the period, down 29% from $1.237 billion a year earlier. The sales decline exceeded expectations from two Wall Street analysts who cover the stock. They estimate the cost of each FactSet to be between $900 million and $1.09 billion.
GameStop lost $32.3 million in the quarter, narrowing from a loss of $50.5 million in the same period a year earlier.
The company also gave an update on its ongoing stock sales, saying it would sell an additional 75 million shares in addition to the 45 million shares it announced in May, raising more than $900 million.
— Yun Li
Gill’s GameStop bet netted him $375 million in paper profits as of Thursday
Since Sunday, Gill began posting screenshots of his electronic trading portfolio holdings. As of Thursday evening, he appeared to own 5 million shares of GameStop common stock and 120,000 call options.
From Sunday to Thursday night, the market value of his position increased by more than $375 million. GameStop shares plunged 20% on Friday morning, which could dent his paper profits.
If these call options are exercised, Gill’s stake in GameStop could reach 17 million shares, making him the fourth-largest shareholder. If the stock returns to its May high of $64.83 per share, Gill’s position would be worth more than $1 billion (his cost to acquire such a stake this way would be $421.4 million).
The call option he owns on GameStop has a strike price of $20 and will expire on June 21. 12 million shares.
Gill can also exercise her rights before June 21, subject to a premium. Additionally, he could roll these calls to further expirations to buy some time, but this could be a costly option.
Many believe that if Gill started selling options, which would be easily detected given the size of the position, it would put significant downward pressure on the stock.
He paused issuing updates a week after The Wall Street Journal reported that Morgan Stanley’s electronic trading broker was considering firing him over concerns that his actions could amount to market manipulation.
— Yun Li