A waiting page for Keith Gill, a Reddit user credited with inspiring the GameStop rally, ahead of a YouTube livestream hosted on a laptop at the New York Stock Exchange on June 7, 2024.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Crypto exchanges are jumping. Roaring Kitty Boosts Meme Stocks. A broader market is collapsing with no apparent catalyst.
Animal spirits are on the loose as 2025 dawns.
Many speculative pockets of the stock market surged Thursday, in the first session of the new year, just after the S&P 500 closed its best two-year performance since 1998.
Bitcoin price-related stocks surged as the cryptocurrency rallied above $96,000. Microstrategy added 3.6% after surging more than 360% in 2024. Crypto-related companies Coinbase, Robinhood, Mara Holdings And Riot platforms also traded higher after a big 2024. A crypto token called “fartcoin” soared 45% and now has a market value of $1.38 billion.
Elsewhere, retail traders active on social media were busy playing a guessing game after online personality Roaring Kitty posted a cryptic gif on X featuring a “Chappelle’s Show” skit in which comedian Dave Chappelle plays the late funk musician Rick James.
One of James’ songs is called “Unity,” and some believe the meme stock frontman, also known as Keith Gill, was referring to Unity softwarewhose stock rose 9.1%. Others thought he was back touting his original favorite Stoppage of playwhose shares were also the subject of an offer.
Meanwhile, semiconductor stocks – the big winners of 2024 – have helped lead the market again after the artificial intelligence trade lost some steam late last year. Nvidia gained 3% on Thursday.
Additionally, Topgolf Callaway Brands golf shares jumped 14.5% on an upgrade at Jefferies to buy from hold. The investment bank said shares of the golf equipment maker appeared oversold and raised its price target to 65% above the year’s closing level.
With market speculation resuming, broad stock indexes were briefly higher to kick off 2025. The Dow Industrial Average advanced as much as 300 points before losing momentum to close the day lower .
Thursday’s dramatic moves resemble the first rebounds following Donald Trump’s election victory in November, with investors betting his pro-business policies would lift businesses and the economy toward strong growth. Those gains slowed toward the end of 2024, as concerns grew that the president-elect’s protectionist policies could spur inflation or disrupt supply chains, and the Federal Reserve signaled fewer rate cuts of interest in 2025.
“Many investors assume that the new administration’s push for deregulation will unleash ‘animal spirits,'” Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, said in a recent note to clients. “But what if this only accelerates the concentration of monopoly power in the hands of a few, diluting the effectiveness of large-scale economic measures and leaving even larger swaths of the population behind? “
Correction: Online personality Roaring Kitty posted a gif on X featuring a “Chappelle’s Show” sketch in which comedian Dave Chappelle plays the late funk musician Rick James. An earlier version contained incorrect information about the message.
