Game on, again: GameStop surges and no one truly knows why

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street's GameStop saga can't stop. At the very least, it won't stop.

After weeks of going dormant, shares of GameStop have suddenly shot higher again, jumping 75% in the last hour of trading Wednesday and another 60% so far Thursday. It's reminiscent of the shocking 1,625% surge for GameStop in January, when bands of smaller and novice investors communicating on Reddit and other social media helped launch the struggling video game retailer's stock.

That initial supernova heightened questions about whether the broader market was in a bubble and whether a new generation of traders should be able to take full advantage of the free trades available on their phones. Global markets swooned momentarily; Congress held a hearing.

No clear reason seems to be behind this most recent move, leaving market observers to grasp at what little news is out there but it does demonstrate the increased power that regular investors suddenly have.

Here’s what we know:

KITTY ROARS AGAIN — The most influential GameStop-backer may be Keith Gill, a colorful personality known for wearing a red headband and cat-themed T-shirts. He’s given regular updates of his GameStop holdings on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum, going back to when a share cost just 85 cents in 2019. A day after testifying in a Congressional hearing about GameStop last week, he indicated he added another 50,000 shares after Feb. 3, doubling his GameStop stock position. By Feb. 3, GameStop had dropped toward $90 after touching a momentary peak of $483 in late January.

Reddit users roared in approval for the continued faith from Gill, who’s also known as Roaring Kitty and by another moniker that can’t be printed in a newspaper. Still, the stock remained in the $40 range before exploding higher at...