GameStop surges 27% to lead meme stock rally in otherwise boring market

Meme stock king GameStop rallied 27% on Tuesday as some retail investors came back in full force despite an otherwise quiet market.

The video game retailer surged as much as 36.5% to $225 apiece in heavy trading volume. More than 14 million shares changed hands, seven times more than its 30-day average, according to FactSet.

Other meme stocks also popped.

Shares of AMC Entertainment jumped 20.3%. The movie theater chain was the most active stock on Fidelity’s trading platform as of 2:30 p.m. ET, according to the broker’s website.

Clover Health climbed nearly 10%. Bed Bath & Beyond rose more than 4%. Robinhood, which has also earned a meme stock status, advanced 9% Tuesday on no apparent news.

Outside of the group favored by retail investors, the stock market seemed to be dull, with most investors eagerly awaiting a key Federal Reserve summit Thursday and Friday. The S&P 500 closed Tuesday’s session 0.2% higher.

Overall volume was light Tuesday with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF trading 30 million shares, about half of its 30-day average, according to FactSet.

The Fed’s Jackson Hole symposium is expected to be market-moving, as central bankers could detail their plans for tapering monetary stimulus. The Fed has started discussions to pull back its minimum $120 billion a month bond-buying program by the end of this year.

The short interest in these meme stocks remained elevated. About 28% of AMC’s float shares are sold short, compared with an average of 5% short interest in a typical U.S. stock, according to S3 Partners. For GameStop, the short interest has declined drastically, to about 10% from more than 100% in January at the height of the meme stock mania.