Investing

Midday Meme Stock Report for 8/18: GameStop, Microvast, Palantir, Robinhood

Paul Ausick

Published: August 18, 2021 1:16 pm

Unlike the first two days of the week, our meme stock portfolio was showing more winners than losers in the noon hour Wednesday. One stock among those with the most mentions on r/wallstreetbets is also a top gainer.

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR) reported last week that it has purchased some $50 million worth of gold bars this month. The company’s chief operating officer said the company has to be ready for more “black swan” events and owning gold is part of that strategy. This is the same company that also accepts payment for its services in bitcoin.

Microvast Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MSVT) was gaining back some of the share price it lost after reporting lackluster quarterly results Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, the stock is not liquid enough to generate a lot of trading action, and its shorted shares are too few to even whisper the word “squeeze.” Here’s more about the lithium market and the market for lithium-ion batteries.

Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOD) reports quarterly results after markets close Wednesday. Expectations are quite low, and because the company and its underwriters remain inside the 40-day quiet period following the initial public offering, there has been little ratings action. Here’s our preview of Robinhood’s earnings, along with comments on Nvidia and Cisco.

GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) was among the morning’s losers. It is easy to forget that GameStop was one of the stocks that led the meme stock revolution in late January. Even though the stock trades well off those peak levels, shares remain about 10 times above their share price at the beginning of the year.

Palantir traded up about 8% to $25.86, in a post-IPO range of $8.90 to $45.00. The average daily trading volume is about 45.3 million shares, and nearly 57 million had traded already Wednesday.

Microvast was up about 6.5%, at $9.55 in a 52-week range of $7.83 to$25.20. The average daily trading volume is about 2.3 million shares, and fewer than 1 million had traded so far on the day.

Robinhood shares traded up about 5.3% to $49.15, in a post-IPO range of $33.25 to $85.00. The average daily trading volume is about 50.3 million shares, and about 8.4 million had traded.

GameStop was down about 2.5% to $159.40. The 52-week range is $4.51 to $483.00. The average daily trading volume is around 5.6 million shares, and fewer than a million had traded thus far.