Before Friday's opening, two pet concept stocks that rose sharply on Thursday due to retail investor leader Keith Gill had different performances. As of press time, Chewy (CHWY.US) fell 1.14% to $28.72; Petco Health & Wellness Co Inc. (WOOF.US) rose 7.78% to $3.6.
After Keith Gill posted a cartoon of a dog at 1 pm Eastern Time, Chewy's stock price soared 34%, reaching an intraday high of $39.10, while Petco's stock rebounded 13% to $3.73, but the rising trend came and went quickly, and Chewy closed down 0.31% at $29.05, while Petco closed down 0.3% at $3.34. Both stocks were halted for trading on the day due to volatility.
Before Chewy's and Petco's stock prices fluctuated on Thursday, Gill returned to social media in May and began posting messages on X for the first time since 2021. His posts intensified the recent meme stock volatility and his live announcement on June 6th stimulated a 47% surge in GameStop (GME.US) stock price.
Gill, through his popular YouTube account Roaring Kitty and Reddit account "DeepF---ingValue," played a leading role in the 2020 GameStop meme stock frenzy. He purchased $53,000 worth of GameStop shares in 2019, and at the peak of the meme hype, these shares were worth $48 million.
Most of Gill's posts after his return were pictures or videos with no accompanying text. The image of the dog was posted the day after Chewy announced a $500 million share buyback, and the stock price was relatively stable before Gill posted the message.
GameStop's stock price also rose more than 10% to $26.69 on Thursday, and closed up nearly 4% at $25.09.