GameStop surges as ‘Roaring Kitty’ posts upcoming livestream

(Reuters) – Shares of GameStop surged over 30% on Thursday after the online stock influencer known as “Roaring Kitty” posted on YouTube that he would hold a livestream on Friday.

Thursday’s surge was the latest in a bout of volatile trading in the struggling videogame seller’s shares that kicked off last month after the influencer, whose real name is Keith Gill, returned to X.com after a three-year hiatus.

The “Roaring Kitty” channel on YouTube on Thursday showed an upcoming livestream schedule for 12 pm ET on Friday.

On Monday, GameStop shares closed over 20% higher after Gill’s Reddit profile returned with a post showing a $116 million bet on the stock after a three-year gap.

Gill was a key player in the 2021 rally in GameStop and other so-called meme stocks that was fueled by individual investors on Reddit’s wallstreetbets forum.

(This story has been corrected to fix the time of livestream to 12 pm ET, not 6 am ET, in paragraph 3)

(Reporting by Noel Randewich, Editing by Nick Zieminski)