Icon: enlarge
A branch of the video retailer in New York City
Photo: CARLO ALLEGRI / REUTERS
According to a media report, US authorities are investigating whether market manipulation led to the stock rally at the video game retailer GameStop and the cinema chain AMC.
The Justice Department and the San Francisco District Attorney had requested information from brokers such as Robinhood and social media companies who were at the center of the trade, reported the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Robinhood played a central role in the concerted buying by retail investors that had put hedge funds in trouble and troubled stock exchanges around the world.
In addition, the US derivatives regulator CFTC has opened a preliminary investigation into whether there has been any possible misconduct in trading silver futures, the paper continues.
Initially, no opinion was received from the Ministry of Justice.
Small investors organized around GameStop shares
Speculative purchases had recently driven the shares of GameStop and other titles to dizzying heights and then allowed them to fluctuate sharply.
Small investors had made concerted purchases to force hedge funds to dissolve bets on the decline of the GameStop price.
In the meantime, US private investors organized on the Internet seem to have found a new object of speculation in cannabis stocks.
After battling it out with Gamestop's hedge funds, stocks like Sundial Growers seem to be becoming their favorites.
The day before these had already risen by almost 80 percent, now the shares went up further before the trading day.
At times by almost half, most recently by 15 percent.
In addition to hydrogen and cryptocurrencies, cannabis has recently become another important trend topic on the stock exchanges.
The internationally debated legalization of marijuana has been creating a lot of imagination in the industry.
According to analyst Neil Wilson from the broker Markets.com, speculation about legalization in the USA is currently driving this sector.
At the same time, he referred to other sector stocks such as Tilray, Canopy Growth, Aurora Cannabis or Aphria, which have recently shown powerful price gains.
Icon: The mirror
svv / Reuters / dpa