Meme stock mania continues to crumble

It might be a long time before we see something as crazy as Gamestop again.

For now though, the mania is over. The pandemic trades are all unwinding and so is this one as shares fall another 7.8% today. They’ve declined to $108 from $154 since the start of the year — a 29% decline. Since the November highs, shares are down 56% (technical analysts will note the double top there).

It’s a similar story in AMC, which is also at a 10-month low.

The whole episode is a demonstration of the madness of crowds, so I don’t know if anything else needs to be read into it. Still, I wonder if these declines demonstrate the underlying decline in risk appetite.

That’s an important question as earning season picks up.

Here’s an interesting one from CIBC on that front:

The proportion of S&P 500 members beating earnings expectations has risen over time – the long-term average
since 2002 is 69% but this number has been rising for years and is now almost 80%

The scale of beats is also historically elevated. That all sets up a perilous earnings season where beats aren’t rewarding and modest beats might even be punished.

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