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Despite the lack of real news, Unity Software (U+8.66%) Shares rose 17% in premarket trading Thursday. This appears to be the result of the latest tweet from investor Keith Gill, also known as “Rolling Kitty.”
Gil Posted A short clip on X, formerly known as Twitter, features the late musician Rick James, who recorded the song “.unity'' Some investors may have taken this as a cue to invest in Unity Software, but the company's stock price has fallen more than 42% in the past 12 months.
Such short-term spikes in stock prices are characteristic of so-called meme stocks. Meme stocks are stocks of companies that become wildly popular online and are traded feverishly by retail and retail investors, causing their prices to soar regardless of the company's actual performance or prospects.
It is unclear whether it was Gill's intention to cause Unity's stock price to rise. But this is by no means the only time one of his cryptic social media posts has caused a big stock price swing.
Earlier this year, Gil helped give Chewy a big boost. (Chiwai-0.10%) and petco (weft+0.26%) Stock after posting a picture of a cartoon dog on X on Thursday afternoon. Within minutes, the stock prices of pet brands Chewy and Petco soared. Quartz reported in June.
Chewy is an online pet supplies company founded by what is now GameStop (GME+0.77%) CEO Ryan Cohen's post sent shares soaring about 30% in intraday trading, and Petco at one point soared 12%. As is often the case with meme stocks, those gains largely disappeared later.
Gill gained national attention during the coronavirus pandemic for his bullish analysis of GameStop on Reddit under the username “DeepF—ingValue.” He drove the first short squeeze in the video game retailer's stock in early 2021, with the company's stock price rising more than 1,000% in a matter of weeks.
In May he The meme stock craze has begun again. Gill brought up GameStop stock on Dec. 26, when he broke his three-year social media hiatus by posting on X. shared an image Posts of X-wrapped Christmas presents sparked a volatile day of trading in GameStop stock.
GameStop shares rose 2% in premarket trading Thursday. Several memecoin cryptocurrencies based on the company, including GmeStop and GameStop Coin, soared.
—Rocio Fabbro contributed to this article
