Up nearly 3,000% this year, the new king of the meme stocks continues to soar

Good morning, Bull Sheeters.

A year ago, the pandemic pushed AMC Entertainment to the brink of bankruptcy. This year, the cinema chain’s stock is up roughly 3,000%. It’s heading to the moon again this morning, pre-market.

Just look at this parabolic stock chart. That’s what you call lift-off! 🚀

In a twist from the GameStop saga, the loss-making AMC is actively courting its retail investors—they make up about 80% of this investor base—with—get this—a free large tub of popcorn.

Some shareholders demand profits. Others insist on steady dividends. And AMC shareholders? Just keep the 🍿 flowing, and everybody’s happy.

If meme stocks are climbing, then crypto must be… yep, they’re gaining too.

Let’s see what else is moving the markets.

Markets update

Asia

• The major Asia indexes are mostly higher in afternoon trading with the Nikkei up 0.4%.
• The Biden White House is drawing up an amended blacklist of Chinese companies with military ties. It follows the Trump Administration’s attempts to create a do-not-invest list, which promptly got challenged in court, and confounded investors.
• Forget AMC. Mumbai-listed Orchid Pharma is up 7,700% in the past seven months. It too has shaky finances, having just emerged from bankruptcy.

Europe

• The European bourses are as flat as a punctured soufflé out of the gates this morning with the Stoxx Europe 600 down 0.1% in early trading, before slipping.
• It’s time to tone down the ambitions for the great British summer. The Johnson government is expected to unveil more cautious plans for international travel later today. Meanwhile, economists and public health officials are warily eyeing rising COVID cases involving the so-called Indian variant that will test the country’s stellar vaccination drive.
• Airbus shares were down 0.4% this morning despite a Bloomberg report that the aerospace giant will disclose next week that May was a big month for delivering new planes to customers.

U.S.

• U.S. futures are trading sideways this morning. That’s after the major averages barely eked out meager gains on Wednesday.
• Shares in Zoom Video Communications are relatively flat in pre-market trading despite the company reporting big customer- and revenues growth numbers. I’m on Zoom so often these days that I’ve begun to dream in Zoom panels… and that I somehow never handed in my final assignment to get my university degree. I know. I need help.

Elsewhere

• Gold is flat, trading around $1,900/ounce.
• The dollar is up.
• Crude is flat with Brent around $71/barrel.
• Bitcoin is trading around $38,500, more or less flat with where it stood a full week ago. If past weeks are any judge, BTC will climb a bit more, then sink again this weekend, only to repeat the cycle… Dogecoin is up 9%.

***

Buzzworthy

🎵 AMC / Easy as one, two, three 🎵

🔥🍿

And huge in Germany (this morning)

🇩🇪🍿

Shhh…no spoilers

Yes, we will all be going back to the cinema to watch a movie in the near future, but that doesn’t change the fact that AMC Entertainment is expected to lose roughly $100 million in next 12 months, analysts say.

💸🍿

Worst. Review. Ever

We think AMC Entertainment’s stock is worth $0 per share, given its weak earnings, dilution from recent stock offerings and mountain of debt.
AMC Entertainment’s business was trending in the wrong direction even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the reopening of the economy is unlikely to move the needle for the company amid the rise of streaming and stiff competition facing movie theaters.—David Trainer, CEO of investment research firm, New Constructs.

0️⃣🍿

***

Have a nice day, everyone. I’ll see you here tomorrow… Until then, there’s more news below.

Bernhard Warner
@BernhardWarner
Bernhard.Warner@Fortune.com

As always, you can write to bullsheet@fortune.com or reply to this email with suggestions and feedback.

Today's reads

Another seat for Engine 1? Embattled energy giant Exxon Mobil announced yesterday that it appears shareholders awarded a third board seat to a nominee of Engine 1, the activist investor group that's pushing the company to up its game on climate. Dumb question: why is it taking so long to count these votes? Wrong answers only.

You probably already own a meme stock. A few weeks ago, I was reviewing my IRA holdings and realized, yikes, I indirectly own a bunch of meme stocks, including GameStop and AMC. That's thanks to some Russell 2000-tracking ETF that I got into at some point after Election Day. As the Wall Street Journal reports, there are plenty of well-known ETFs that have long held these stocks. You probably own a bunch yourself. 

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