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3 Minutes Read (Reuters) – Shares of movie theater operator AMC Entertainment and video game retailer GameStop Corp tumbled on Wednesday, with both trading at half their recent highs, putting retail investors’ patience to the test. Showcase ( 2 images ) AMC was last down 1% at $34.93, down more than 50% from its all-time high of $72.62 set in early June. The stock hit a low of $33.66 earlier today, its lowest level since May 28. After hitting a session low of $170.29, GameStop was down 5.2 percent at $170.66, compared to its June 8 high of $344.66. GameStop, which had touched an all-time high of $483 in late January, was on course for its fourth consecutive day of losses. Both equities, which have been at the center of dramatic rallies in so-called meme stocks that have enthralled Wall Street, harmed pessimistic hedge funds, and increased the prominence of individual investors, are still up huge year-to-date. In 2021, AMC was still up over 1,500 percent, while GamesStop was up nearly 800 percent. Individual investors who have purchased their shares in recent months, often advertising their purchases on sites like Reddit’s popular WallStreetBets, are likely to be put to the test by their recent falls. “It’s easy to hop on board when things are moving up,” said Jake Dollarhide, CEO of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa. “Because there is less interest in the trade, it could drop dramatically. People despise losing money far more than they enjoy making it.” Even after a great weekend at the box office, when Walt Disney Co. and Marvel’s superhero adventure film “Black Widow” took in $80 million in the largest opening weekend for a movie since the pandemic, AMC shares fell. However, according to Dollarhide, Disney also made $60 million through the film’s direct-to-consumer streaming business, which competes with movie theaters. According to MKM Partners analyst Eric Handler, fears about the current variant of COVID-19, which has shut down theaters and other businesses for months, may be increasing drops in so-called reopening stocks like AMC. “It was a momentum move, and as the momentum dries up a little bit, it comes down,” Handler explained. AMC is predicted to have an adjusted loss per share of $3.16 on revenue of $2.41 billion for the full year of 2021. According to the latest estimate from S3 Partners, around 78 million shares of AMC, or over 16 percent of its float, were sold short as of Tuesday’s close. As of June 30, 75 million shares have been sold short. According to S3, around 8.68 million shares of GameStop, or 14.9 percent of its float, were sold short as of Tuesday’s close, compared to 8.22 million on June 30. Sinead Carew contributed reporting, and Nick Zieminski edited the piece./nRead More

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