Nokia stock up 90% today as folks attack financial sector shorters *UPDATE: Nokia issues statement*
It’s hard to explain what is going on exactly, but at one point today Nokia’s stock price at the New York Stock Exchange soared 90% to 8.81 dollars, compared to the 4.87 dollars the stock started today’s trading at. Nokia’s stock isn’t alone – Gamestop, BlackBerry, AMC and others.
Stock day traders are apparently buying stocks that hedge funds are shorting (betting the stock price will fall), thus increasing the stock price. The targeted stocks appear to be “legacy” or in other words old companies in their industrial field, like Gamestop in gaming retail, AMC in theatres or Nokia and BlackBerry in technology.
Article from Reuters on Yahoo Finance says that the surge of stock price of Gamestop and AMC forced hedge funds to retreat with heavy losses and “sparking calls for scrutiny of social media-driven stock market trading”. The NYSE has been stopping and restarting the trading of the mentioned stock, with stock prices going up as high as 200% for AMC at the moment.
The whole initiative seems to originate from Reddit (and indirectly Elon Musk?). Thus far, Nokia is the only European stock that experienced such stock price increases. I’m no financial expert and cannot pretend I know what is going on, but I am happy for the folks that bought their Nokia shares before 2011-2013, because now they can get some long-awaited decent return of investment. In the case of Nokia, the question remains if the stock price will go up on Helsinki Stock Exchange tomorrow.
If you have any more insights at what’s going on, please share it in the comments below. 🙂
Update: Nokia issued an official press statement regarding the stock price increase basically saying the company doesn’t know why that is happening.
Nokia comments on trading activity of its stock
Espoo, Finland – Nokia is issuing this stock exchange release to comment on recent trading activity of its stock. Nokia is not aware of any material, undisclosed corporate developments or material change in its business or affairs that has not been publicly disclosed that would account for the recent increase in the market price or trading volume of its shares.
